Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at Way Out West: A Masterclass in Unpredictable Concert Artistry

Nick Cave has clearly misunderstood the whole idea of playing at a festival.

You get a stage. You stand on the stage. You play on the stage.

SIMPLE.

But at Way Out West, Cave mostly seems to see the stage as a place he needs to return to from time to time to check if The Bad Seeds are still there.

And the chaos starts right away.

During "Get Ready for Love", the microphone dies. Cave looks at it, determines that it has served its purpose, and performs a technical troubleshooting procedure according to the internationally recognized Nick Cave method:

THROWS IT AWAY.

Short pause, new microphone – and then they start over.

"Get Ready for Love" gets a significantly better second start and is followed by "From Her to Eternity", where it quickly becomes clear what kind of evening is ahead. The Bad Seeds are brutal, Cave is completely wound up, and Warren Ellis, as usual, looks like he's in his own little dimension.

WHERE IS NICK?

Already early on, Cave starts moving out towards the audience.

And he doesn't settle for the front row.

He grabs hands, climbs, balances, and makes his way further and further out among tens of thousands of people. One moment he's on stage, the next far out in the sea of spectators.

It's almost hard to understand how Cave manages to make such a huge festival gig feel so physical and intimate. He wants eye contact, hands, and reactions – and the audience gives him everything.

Then gravity wins.

Nick Cave falls down into the crowd.

POOF.

Gone.

For a few seconds, Way Out West has lost its headliner. But the crowd quickly grabs him and helps him up.

Naturally, Cave continues as if this is all part of the plan.

THE BAD SEEDS GEAR UP

Behind all this is a band that can go from almost cautious to completely overwhelming in a matter of moments.

"The Mercy Seat" becomes one of the night's great eruptions and "Red Right Hand" is still as ominous as it rolls out over Slottsskogen.

But it's "Jubilee Street" that truly shows what The Bad Seeds can do live. It starts reserved, builds layer by layer, and ends in something much larger than the song that originally began.

Meanwhile, the quieter moments are necessary. "O Children", "Joy", and "Rings of Saturn" provide the concert with both warmth and breathing room between the attacks.

And at the very front stands Cave, commanding it all.

68 years old and still with the energy of someone who’s just discovered that barricades are more a suggestion than an actual boundary.

FROM CHAOS TO A PIANO

It's precisely the contrasts that make the concert so powerful.

For almost two hours, Cave has thrown himself between the piano, the edge of the stage, and the audience. He’s lost a microphone, thrown a microphone, lost himself in the crowd, and been lifted up again.

Then comes "Into My Arms".

Cave alone at the piano.

After everything that’s happened, suddenly nothing else is needed.

It's a pretty perfect ending to a concert that manages to be both enormous and intimate at once.

The microphone: Short but spectacular career.

Warren Ellis: Still impossible to explain.

The Bad Seeds: A minor earthquake with instruments.

The audience: 5/5 in emergency Nick Cave rescue.

Nick Cave's self-preservation instinct: Still not installed.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds came to Way Out West to play on the stage.

Nick Cave did his best to avoid being on it.

Absolutely brilliant.