11 posts tagged “nick cave”
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds release their 14th studio album DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! on 3rd March 2008.
Produced by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Nick Launay who worked with the band on their last album Abattoir Blues/ The Lyre of Orpheus, the new album was recorded over the summer at State of the Ark Studios in Richmond and mixed by Nick Launay at British Grove in Chiswick.
DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! features artwork by Brit artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will announce single and tour news soon and rest assured you will be the first to hear about it.
Strangely enough, the past 10 days off in between jobs/downtime have been really, really busy! I have been trying to get things organised that I never had the time for before, like putting up that shelf, or nightlights over my bed, so I can actually read. Or paint the kitchen, and put those hooks in the wall. Or sell the freezer thingie and dishwasher that have been stowed away/taking up space for the past 1.5 years. So I've done all that, but I still have a huge list of things on my to-do list. This time off thing is hard work!
Also, I saw Cansei de Ser Sexy (pictures to follow), Daniel Johnston (pictures up on flickr), The Church and Scissor Sisters. The Church were mindblowingly excellent, quite unexpected really. Well, not unexpected really, as I basically didn't know what to expect. It almost felt a little Pink Floyd-ish to me, especially given the small stage upstairs in the Paradiso. It was most excellent and I'd love to see them again. The Scissor Sisters rocked as well, though they had to really work hard to get the audience going. I think I was amongst maybe half a dozen people that actually seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'll be seeing them again on my birthday :)
Aside from all that, I am trying to get organised to travel to the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. Tickets are complicated and I have to pick them up at the venue, fill out couple of forms, sign my soul away and meet up with a complete stranger somewhere on the Saturday. I still have to book a hotel in Bristol and then make my way to Taunton, Sommerset. I'll probably catch a coach out there, but I'll book that whenever I get to Bristol.
The lineup of the festival is looking amazing. Nina Nastasia gets to play after all, and Mary Margaret O'Hare is a last minute addition. Schedule is as follows, but I haven't figured out yet what my personal preferences will be. I just hate that you can't see everything :-/
Friday
Pavilion Stage
19.00 – 20.00 The Only Ones
20.30 – 22.00 Dirty Three
Centre Stage
17.30 – 18.30 Ian Wadley
19.00 – 20.00 Conway Savage
20.30 – 21.45 Magnolia Electric Co.
22.30 – 23.30 Psarandonis
00.00 – 00.45 Devastations
01.15 – 02.00 Josh Pearson
Reds stage
22.30 – 23.30 Art of Fighting
00.00 – 00.45 Brokeback
Saturday
Pavilion Stage
14.15 – 15.15 Magnolia Electric Co.
15.45 – 16.30 Shannon Wright
17.00 – 18.00 Low
18.30 – 19.30 Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline
20.00 – 22.15 Nick Cave / Grinderman
Centre Stage
14.30 – 15.15 Felix Lajko
15.45 – 16.30 Sally Timms
17.00 – 18.00 Alan Vega
18.30 – 19.30 Mick Harvey
20.00 – 21.30 Yann Tiersen
22.00 – 22.45 The Scientists
23.15 – 00.00 The Drones
00.15 – 01.00 Nina Nastasia
01.30 – 02.30 Einstürzende Neubauten
Reds stage
13.15 – 14.00 Joel Shilbersher & The Spot of Bother
14.30 – 15.15 Digital Primatives
15.45 – 16.30 Matana Roberts
17.00 – 17.45 Faun Fables
22.15 – 23.15 Youpi Youpi Yeah
23.45 – 00.30 We Ragazzi
Sunday
Pavilion Stage
14.30 – 15.30 Dirty Three
16.00 – 18.00 Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra
18.30 – 19.30 Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
20.00 – 22.15 Nick Cave / Grinderman
Centre Stage
13.30 – 14.15 Papa M
14.45 – 15.30 Ed Kuepper with Jeffrey Wegener
16.00 – 16.45 Mary Margaret O’Hara
17.15 – 18.00 Joanna Newsom
18.30 – 19.15 White Magic
19.45 – 20.30 Bill Callahan
21.00 – 21.45 Joanna Newsom
22.15 – 23.15 Tara Jane O’Neil
23.45 – 00.45 Tren Brothers
Reds Stage
13.30 – 14.30 Roscoe Mitchell
22.00 – 22.45 Mum Smokes
23.15 – 00.00 Small Knives
00.30 – 01.15 Secretary
Additionally, the Dirty Three have a whole lot of tour dates coming up, mostly in the subterranean countries and I can't go to any of them because of the new job. Oh yeah, the new job. I am starting this Tuesday. Hopefully Easyjet won't cancel their flight this time :-}
So I've been out of commission for a while, suffering from this slipped disc thing. Something that happens far too often to my liking. It had me very very very restricted for a good while, and frankly, it hurt like hell, despite so called painkillers, that didn't work at all. What is it with doctors these days, and being unwilling to actually help you? My monthly insurance fees are enormous, which I never use, because I never actually go see a doctor, and then when I do, he goes "Just take a couple of aspirins, and you'll be fine". Twat. I wasn't fine. I could barely get out of bed in the morning or put on my socks or anything. People were really forthcoming in helping me out with Solon, help which I grudgily accepted. I really have to learn to accept people's help more easily, but at least this was a start. I even managed to get him clipped last friday. First time for him (and me), but I must say Himself is looking very smart in his short coat. Almost like a real horse :) I did feel a little down about everything though, as everyone seems to be having fun with my horse lately, except for me. And they all keep telling me how great a horse he is. Pfft, like I didn't know that!
The back pains caused me to miss seeing Kashmir last wednesday. Then I was faced with the Nick gig last Saturday. An 85 euro ticket, I bought ages ago, thinking, Hey, it's a Saturday, so I can take my time driving into Germany and Mainz (about 4 hours), bimble around a bit and then go see this gig, not knowing that a few months later, I'd hardly be able to walk. I ended up doing what every other sensible person would do, overdose on painkillers, and drove down to Mainz. Getting in and out of the car was interesting, and frankly, I was in pain during the entire gig, but... it was still worth it! Nick was in great form, joking around, really drawing in his audience, taking the piss out of everything, first and foremost, himself. As a little extra, the new Grinderman single was played. A little side project? Or maybe just the follow up of the Bad Seeds? Who knows... The song "No Pussy Blues" is brilliant. I like the heavy guitars and the more throbby feel of the song, which seems a little more like "old" Nick Cave. The lyrics describe exactly how Nick has come across on stage lately. Loose, and taking the piss out of being a so called aging rock star.
The good news is I didn't feel nearly as bad as I thought I would the day after. Some strength seems to be seeping back in my leg, and I actually seem to be able to stand upright and walk in a straight line. I even sinned and managed to climb onto my horse's (bare) back, which actually helped to loosen the muscle. Something to do about the movement of the horse, or whatever. Climbing down was a different matter... So glad Solon is such a superhorse though, cause he stood stock still as I clamped onto him for dear life, slowly letting myself slip from his back onto the ground.
Just before my back broke down, I did go to see Nina Nastasia one night, and Cat Power a few days after that, but didn't have time to put them up yet. Nina was gorgeous, but still remains oddly underappreciated. She played the small Paradiso upstairs place, and that was maybe only half filled. They even put tables down. Very very strange setting, but it didn't matter, the gig was great either way. I'd love to see what Nina does with a somewhat more involved audience, as opposed to a very quiet, but attentive audience. She tried to reach out, but got very little back, which was a shame.
Then Chan Marshall, or Cat Powerrrrrr! Her sound has changed a little, I thought. Not surprising, really, considering where she came from. The last few times I saw her, she was on stage, bottle in hand, and she'd actually finish that bottle during the gig. Fidgety, flightt and nervous, she'd start and restart a song three times, and then break it off completely during the fourth. She's still fidgety and insecure on stage, unsatisfied with the way she sounded, and letting that overrule her performance, but not like she once was. She's just Cat Power and her little insecurities make her who she is and it's what makes her charming. I really enjoyed the gig and hope to see both again at some later date.
I took pictures at both of the girls' gigs, but not at Nick's gig. They're up on my flickr page, for anyone interested.
I did some more spraying in the middle of the living room last night which was a Bad Idea in that now my very cool looking smooth hardboard flooring is now covered in a silvery grey dusting, which left me on hands and knees last night trying to scrub it clean. Emphasis on trying. I always do stupid shit like this...
The upside is that the final result looks absolutely stunning. I should have some time tonight to finalise the whole thing, so hopefully everything will come together the way I imagined it and the Hungarians won't start World War III while I'm there :-]
Someone posted this link from an icelandic paper
on a Nick Cave forum. It mentions Nick trying to ride Icelandic horses,
which (being a rider myself) just cracks me up. Icelandics are
typically very small, strong little horses, which are often made to
look even smaller when ridden by tall, thin men. I'd love to see a
picture of that!
Show us some concert photos.
Submitted by Abigail Road.
How many do you want? I love taking concert pictures. More or less started back in 97 during U2 gigs, with a not so great point and click camera, which had a decent zoom for that kind of time. I upgraded to a Canon EOS300 (the analogue kind) a couple of years after, and but the cost of film bled me dry. July 2005 I splurged out and went digital with an EOS350. Cost me a small fortune, but it's paid back for itself a thousand fold taking the cost of film into account. I'd like to get a more robust/professional body and a couple of lenses, but I'd probably need to invest a couple of grand to get where I really want. A good photo course wouldn't go amiss either. Despite all that, I do get the occassional "lucky shot" though. I really should do something interesting with all these, but for some reason, that never really happened.
David Bowie at the Point Depot in Dublin,
2003. One of those "lucky shots" you can only ever dream of. This is
one of my favourite pictures ever from the analogue time. I've been told David liked it too :)
This shot of Bono I took about 10 days after buying my the 350. It was one of the favourite pictures all tour picked by atu2.com readers during a competition.
Bono is another poser, who seems to be very aware of cameras in the audience. He'll bend over, pose and hold still and even play with the photographers. U2 concerts are, unfortunately, near impossible to smuggle half decent cameras in to. I lost a 50mm/1.8 lens during the concert before this one, when I dropped it.
Gavin Friday at Liberty Hall in August 2006. Another lucky shot, where the lighting turned out to be just right. No one seemed to particularly care about the camera, or me sitting on the floor taking shots. Perfect!
Incidentally, that late July/early August weekend in Dublin was one of my highlights of 2006. So there.
Nick Cave at the World Forum Theatre in The Hague, September 2006. I've taken loads of pictures of Nick before, but none ever lived up to my standard set at the Liss Ard festival in 1999. He moves so much and erratically on stage, it's hard to get any shot in focus. He's one of few performers I find impossible to do justice in pictures. And that's not just because of the funny moustache.
Nick sometimes glares evilly at me and I get scared.
Rufus is another willing subject. While he doesn't necessarily pose for any camera he spots, he just has that natural way of moving and expressions that makes him a very easy subject to take pictures off. Aside from that he loves to spice up his shows with a dash of drama, like this crucification scene. I hear when Madonna did something similar, there were protests going on outside the Amsterdam ArenA.
The Dirty Three are probably my favourite band, ever. This is another picture from the analogue era and then scanned in. I took this at a tiny venue in Paris of which I can't remember the name somewhere in 2004 (I think), but I know there's a great bootleg of it doing the rounds. I really like the colours in this pic.
Another Warren Ellis picture I absolutely love was also taken at the Liss Ard Festival in 1999. First person to ever offer to put me on the guestlist... then promptly forgot and subsequently made me feel very embarrassed by trying to convince the venue people to give me my money back.
This picture of Anouk (Dutch singer) I took at Rock Werchter this year and promptly got hassled by the press lady person right after taking it. Apparently if you've got a 350 with a 100 buck 50mm lens you get tagged "professional". These people are going to have a hard time in the years to come.
After that, I was unable to take pictures of Muse and The Who which, frankly, sucked. Muse, however, did not suck.
One of the coolest pictures of Jarvis ever. I took this at the aforementioned Liss Ard Festival back in 1999 with a very questionable camera. Apparently the organisation had asked Jarvis to, aside from the regular Pulp set, also do an acoustic session at the side of the lake. Jarvis doesn't like acoustic though, or so I was told. So instead, he brought his records and did a DJ set. Very surreal setting. Bright light, lake, lounging back in the grass...
...a terrible shame I was too sick with fever to fully enjoy it.
Other things I remember are the smell of dung, which isn't exactly what you'd expect from a festival called Beach Rock, but may be explained by the fact that the festival actually took place on the Oostende racetrack.
Bowie and Primal Scream rocked, even when Bobbie Gillespie had to hold on to his mic stand for dear life to even stay upright.
Then the most disappointing concert of 2006. Bauhaus. I'd anticipated it so much, looking forward to it, and being very excited about it. I got prime picture shooting location, right in the middle and slightly off the side, so as not to have the mic stand right in front of me.
Peter Murphy and Daniel Ash were having a major tiff on stage, however. The first thing Peter did when he got on stage was sit down on one of the speakers at the far end corner of the stage, giving Daniel Ash the center light he apparently craves. The lot of them ended up playing only half a show in between major sulks.
The day after they played a perfect show at the Mera Luna Festival without any craziness whatsoever. Unfortunately, I wasn't there.
And last but not least, two pictures I took in Dublin last saturday. One is Mark E. Smith of The Fall, who played The Village and put up an amazing show with old people dancing, bouncing and pogoing about. Someone I was talking to beforehand called The Fall the mother of all indie music, which I could kind of find myself in.
You wouldn't give it to him, looking at him, would you?
The second is a band called The Automatic ("Is it a monster?"), who I didn't especially needed to see, but I got a little bored all by myself in Dublin so I went anyway and ended up being the old people pogoing about.
I actually enjoyed it. They've got a bit of a punky thing going on on stage, which I really like and makes for some awesome shots.
Special thumbs up to their support band Mumm-Ra who were pretty awesome too. Very energetic and overexcited like a pack of young dogs.
There's more on my flickr page.
Well then, I finally sat down to get some of my thoughts out of my head.
The Came So Far For Beauty shows were simply amazing. It wasn't even so much who was part of the lineup, even when it was impressive, but just the whole atmosphere altogether. An atmosphere where no Lou Reed is more important than Mary Margaret O'Hare, or a Nick Cave is a bigger star than Teddy Thompson. It's all about Leonard Cohen's song, no matter who's doing them.
The variations were immense, from some doing their best to do the best possible rendition of the songs, to others (mainly Jarvis Cocker) taking one of the songs and making it sound completely like one of his own, almost giving a deeper, double meaning to it, most befitting a Pulp song. The mixed audience were kind of funny too. From Leonard Cohen die hards to corporate whores to Lou Reed fans and so on. Most people probably didn't know even half of the people on stage and their reactions to the different performers was interesting and sometimes, frankly, unexpected. Apparently that varying divided opinion wasn't purely limited to the audience. The reviews in the papers the next day were all over the place, with the Irish Times hailing in the Handsome Family and Teddy Thompson, totally dissing Gavin Friday to the freebie Metro type paper calling Gavin the highlight of the evening. I am very curious about these variations of opinion and what causes them. I can see the pros and cons, and how they'd cause some people to like one thing, and others not. For example, Gavin and Mary Margaret's rendition of Hallelujah was so original, so different from any Hallelujah version ever heard before, people were bound to either love it, or hate it. If you associate the song with Buckley's version and then get exposed to this, you might hate it, whereas if you decide no version of Hallelujah will ever be better than the original, it may actually be very refreshing to hear this new, avant garde kind of rendition of it. I absolutely loved it, simply because it was new, refreshing and original.
It was also my first time ever seeing Lou Reed live, which rocked. I did think his version of the Cohen songs were a bit guitar heavy though and I preferred the song/duet he did where he didn't play the guitar. Beth Orton blew the audience away, as did Antony. I'd never appreciated Antony much before, but all that has changed. His voice is so pure, so simple and so freaking stunning it's impossible not to appreciate it. Him doing backing vocals to Gavin is bound to make Sue jealous for not being able to make it over. Sorry Sue :-]
Friday we drove down to Glendalough with the intention to go fo a good hike and see the waterfall and whatnot. Well, we made it about as far as the cemetary and never even got a glimpse of the waterfall for all the rain pouring down on us. So not surprisingly, we ended up in the pub munching unexpectedly gorgeous sandwiches and sipping hot tea. Dropped off Caroline in Dalkey after which Stu, Sandra and me joined up with Patrick for food and drinks at the IFC. Another old favorite of ours, I suppose. The nachos were great, and the atmosphere was good, just loud enough to not hear everyone's conversation, but quiet enough to talk amongst ourselves. Very mellow, relaxing evening.
Saturday looked like I might spent all day trying to either find accommodation or suck up to the ex-boyfriend to kip on his couch, but I really didn't want to do that. None of that necessary however, since the tourist information centre sorted me out really quickly. So instead, I headed off to Nude for a turkey bagel and one of them Wu-Tang juices I love. In the evening I headed off to the Village, up next to Whelan's to see if I could scrounge a ticket for The Fall. The Village has a lovely bar with pictures of all bands that played there, that kept me entertained for a while. They even had one of the Dirty Three, but also the Magic Numbers and a couple of others. Slummed there for a while and talked to the tout hanging around there and a few folks. Nobody seemed to be having spares and even the tout seemed to be despairing. Bit of a grim outlook really, but I shouldn't have worried, really. Funny how I have been ticketless so often but always manage to get a ticket anyway. Whatever the case, I paid only face value and ended up in prime position at the Village. Great little venue it is too. It holds maybe a couple of hundred, with a nice little balcony and a nice, low stage. Possibly the only downside is the insane security.
Fujiya & Miyagi were the support. A Brighton based band (I think) who I hadn't heard from before, but proved to be very entertaining indeed. The Fall started off moderately calm, but everyone kind of went berserk during "What about us?" I absolutely loved it! Loved it, despite the bruised knee and smashed shoulder I'm now suffering :) The crowd was absolutely nuts which, considering the average age there was about 50, was pretty damn neat. Lovely evening, and very glad I went.
Today then is your typical sunday. Grey, drizzily, nothing really going on. The place I am staying in now is right next to the Music Centre where the Automatic are playing tonight. I don't really know them other than one or two tracks I may have heard on Xfm, but I think I'll go see them anyway. They are soundchecking at the moment with the Killers blasting out of the stage door. Heh. I'd like to take some pictures, but my camera is kind of running out of juice, and I didn't bring a charger. Hopefully it'll hold up during the gig.
Oh, and I kind of need to remember to buy a ticket for Nina Nastasia when I get home. Reluctant to go home (and back to work) at the moment, but c'est ca. At least it's only for 10 days, until I go to Budapest ;) How lucky am I? And, OMG, only 10 day to sort out my Halloween costume, nevermind a horse sitter. Hrm. Feeling slightly disorganised here. What else is new?
Boo. No free/unsecured access points near, so I'll have to post this later.
Update: Munching from the early bird menu @ Fitzers and abusing their free hotspot. The fishcakes aren't bad at all.
For some reason I completely missed my alarm call this morning. I think it's my phone, really, which seems slightly buggered (but still needs to last me another year). So for some reason I didn't wake up at 7, as intended, but at 8:30. I panicked slightly, jumped out of my bed, picked out some clothes and whatnot... dived straight into the shower, where I promptly got a nosebleed. No idea why, but it wasn't very enjoyable.
And then I found out there was no reason to hurry at all, cause the appointment I have today is not until 11:30. While it's about an hour away, it gives me plenty of time to do whatever I want. Like writing this.
The weekend was filled with lots of horsie stuff that I won't bore you folks with, lots of music (Leonard Cohen, mostly) and an unvoluntary spending of money. I got suckered into talked into bought some more Nick Cave tickets. One ticket for Mainz, which is nicely in the weekend somewhere in November and one for some impossible November tuesday night in Bonn. The last one is going to be fun though, since a friend is coming along and I don't think she's ever seen Nick. I already warned her we'd probably end up sitting on the floor, but she seems fine with that. Wicked :) It'll make a nice difference from going alone.
Went over to the folks last night who had invited me for dinner, where we ended up discussing the dog. My mum blatantly asked me what I'd do if I were her, and I didn't have the heart to answer her. Frankly, the way Sammie seems reluctant to get up, go out, beg for food (which she has done for 14 years) or even lift her head pains me. At the same time, I'm not sure if that's reason enough to put and end to it... We all kind of keep hoping she just won't wake up one morning and I caught myself checking her breath a couple of times. Not sure what to do, if something happens while I'm in Dublin I'm not sure what I'll do with myself.
Aside from that, fierce headache at the moment, which in combination with the random nosebleed makes me slightly worried.
Fuck yeah! It's almost weekend... Weeehaaaa!
German friend is wanting me to take her to see Nick in Bonn in November, but I haven't really decided yet. At almost EUR80/concert it's a wee bit expensive to just randomly go, especially after I've seen so amny already. Nevermind that it's on a tuesday, so I'll have to sort something out with work (actually, I just found out that after all my October tripping I'll still have 14 vacation days left, so that's hardly a show stopper). I'll give it some more thought. It'll be cool to introduce my friend to Nick's music... I don't think she's ever seen him, or even heard him. Would be cool.
No big plans for the weekend. I suppose I really should sort my Dublin trip out, since I'll be going there, uh, oh, in 5 days. Maybe some laundry will be handy. I'm taking the horse out for a dressage comp this sunday, but I'm sure he'll be a complete pigheaded little shit again. He's been doing that real well lately... Little git. But he looks so cute being a pig... just can't get angry with him. Sod.
Other than that, nothing planned at all, just a quiet weekend at home. Kind of need one of those... Paris was rough ;-]
Joan at the FNAC in store rocked. It was the weirdest little place, with plastic folded chairs and a tiny little stage. Joan seemed a little frustrated about not getting anything from the audience who were very polite, French and non English speaking and didn't get any of her banter.
I called Stuart on the phone to let him listening to one of the songs, because he keeps missing her concerts for some weird reason. I did get to talk to her a little after the show, which was kind of neat. She's a genuinely nice person and funny too, which helps.
My last night in Paris was a blast. I ended up sharing a room with Oliver and Mandy, both American but vastly interested in foreign culture, France specifically so. It's always nice to meet people like that, who blow the lousy American stereotype to pieces. We talked art and history and the beauty of things in general. Somehow we ended upall together sitting on the sidewalk in front of our hostel. Everybody chipped in with a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers, juice, chocolate and so forth. A grand little, very spontaneous kind of party, in the heart of Paris. It was a perfect ending to a perfect break.
Back at home, things didn't look so up. My eldest dog, Sammie, is very, very sick at the moment. Alright, she's not the youngest anymore at 14, but she's always been doing quite well upto now. That seems to have changed almost overnight. She basically refuses to eat anything and just lies around being miserable. At the same time, she still gets excited whenever I come in, and will cuddle up to me, but only momentarily. The way it looks now, she's starting to slowly slip from our grip. She seems to be suffering from a problem with her liver, which basically makes her feel miserable. The problem is that we don't really know what's wrong with it, and my mother doesn't want to put her through unnecessary suffering where the treatment gets worse than the cure. She's an old dog, and too much doctoring might prolong her life a little, but "a little" is frankly not good enough. So now there's not a lot we can do, but wait and keep our fingers crossed that she'll pull through.
I did go to Antwerp sunday and monday to see Nick again. I've been to Antwerpen a few times, but for some reason never quite realised how small it really was. I wandered around quite a bit, not sampling the Belgian beers, but enjoyed watching the sights and walking along the Schelde river. The show was alright, but not great. I think it's mostly down to me hating the venue and the Belgians being a bit quiet.
Nick on the other hand... I don't know what's come over him. I don't think I have ever seen him so laid back and forthcoming. He'll walk onto the stage and spend the first couple of minutes of the show shaking hands and signing stuff, being really spontaneous about it. He almost seems.... happy.
A happy Nick Cave. There's an interesting concept. What next? The pope having sex with another man? What's this world coming to?
Next thing up is the Came So Far For Beauty thing in October. And what a stellar line up it is. I initially get excited because Gavin will be on stage, but I'm getting Jarvis Cocker, Lou Reed and Nick Cave thrown in as well. What a setup! Now I'm not big on afterparties, but I bet this one is going to be hot.
A few more gigs lined up after that. Looking something like this:
04/10 - Came So Far For Beauty - Dublin
05/10 - Came So Far For Beauty - Dublin
03/11 - Cat Power - Paradiso
09/11 - Nick Cave - Nurnberg
10/11 - Nick Cave - Stuttgart
11/11 - Nick Cave - Mainz
16/11 - The Killers - Paradiso
28/11 - Muse - Brabanthallen
19/12 - Muse - Sportpaleis Antwerpen
Not sure if I'll be going to see even more Nick Cave shows... Im tempted, but I've got this cash flow thing going on at the moment (not surprising at EUR80/ticket). The Killers will be cool too, probably one of the last times we'll see them in such a small venue. Going with loads of friends too, so should be a nice night out. Somewhere in between the Crossing Border Festival is on as well, and Joan is playing a few more gigs, so I'll see if I can go to some of those. So yeah, pretty booked up right upto the end of the year. Very exciting times, but I have to keep an eye on the funds with regards to coming to America next year.
I suppose I've been kind of missing in action along the way. So time for an update.
As of friday afternoon I have a week off... one whole week off to go see loads of Nick Cave shows.
I went to the shows in the Hague on Monday and Tuesday and then to the next one here in Paris where I am now. Tuesday in the Hague was mindblowing. It was great to see how laid back Nick and the band were, joking around, laughing and whatnot.
I bumped into a Bowie related friend the first night and got talking for a bit. After the show he asked me did I know where the aftershow was, but no... no clue, and not really interested. I met him again the next day and he said he'd been at the party and talked to all the lads and whatnot. Great story behind it though. Basically, he was hanging out near the ticketoffice trying to sell some spares and noticed some guy trying to explain the people in the ticket office he was actually on the guestlist. The guy turned out to be a Swee, who had bumped into Nick at the airport. He'd asked where his next show was and Nick said he'd put him on the guestlist. One minor problem: Nick couldn't actually remember his name, so had put him down as "guy I met at the airport". Kinda cute.
So this morning I got up at 4:30 in order to catch the 5:30 metro to the Central Station, from which the TGV to Paris departed. Strangely enough, it was the exact same train, even wagon Nick's crew was in as well. Not that that is awfully exciting or anything, seeing how all they and I did was sleep.
Made it to Paris at 11, which is the nice part about leaving that early. Ran up to a hostel in Montmarte, which initially said they didn't have any space, but came up with something after all. Picked up my Nick ticket at the FNAC and went up to check out the venue, Cinema Grand Rex.
When I got there, there were some people already there, getting very excited. I watched them for a while, until my eye fell on a Dutch paper the little kiosk was selling. NRC. Not my favourite paper, but I figured it'd kill the time, so I bought it. In it there were pages and pages of stock exchange info and news about the government financial plan that was presented the day before yesterday. Boring. Imagine my surprise when I came across a half full page of a Nick Cave cartoon. The illustrator had been to the first gig and had made up a cute little cartoon like about Nick. I actually found it very funny and sure enough... black Merc pulls up, Nick gets out. I didn't want to hassle him, but sure enough, he spotted me, and I showed him the paper to sign, explaining I'd just bought it. While the cartoon was in Dutch, he seemed amused by it. The cartoony characters are very funny all by themselves, so I suppose there ain't no language barriers when it comes to cartoons.
Either way, he signed it and I was very proud, carefully wrapping it and rewrapping it, then decided to run it back to the hostel. Murphy's Law demands something should go wrong along the way, so out of the whole paper I lost that specific page. Luckily I realised it fairly quickly, so I ran back to find where I had lost it. Luckily, I did spot it exactly where I thought I had lost it, except...
...it was in the middle of the road.
...and then some cars ran over it...
....and I was disgusted.
So now I have a signed Nick cartoon with tire marks on it :D
The Paris show itself was cool, though not overly mentionable. Very standard setlist... Very entertaining conversation between Nick and (frankly) the crazy French. The Cinema Grand Rex though... just wow. It's an old cinema with very comfortabl light beige leather seats. When you enter, you walk into an indoor area that is made to look like an outdoor area. Huge stage, with on each side something crafted that looks like a house's facade with french balconies and all, giving the feeling that the stage is sat in between the houses. On top of that, there's a very, very high ceiling, painted dark blue to inky black, with little white lights sat within it, giving the effect of starry skies. Absolutely amazing to see.
Strangely enough, I also ran into a friend and his wife there, that I know from the Dirty Three shows, so we talked for a little while. Good to see some familiair faces.
So now I'm back at the hostel, and there's lots of Canadians scattered around the common area and it's a lot of fun just hanging out there. While I'm absolutely shattered, tired and god knows what, I feel somewhat like getting a bottle of wine and hanging out until 5, getting slowly drunk. Great, slow evening in Montmartre, Paris. Absolutely awesome.
On top of that, Joan as Policewoman is doing an instore in the FNAC tomorrow, so I'm definitely going there. Great little freebie surprise there. But first things first. Breakfast and then the Louvre.
Here's some Nick pics. More to come :)
