Monday 25 May 2015

"I want to tell you about a girl..."


Typed off the top of my head, to the buzz of night:

And then he took to the piano, again, and then... ‘I’m transforming… I’m vibrating… look at me now’. Never has the ending of “Jubilee Street” sounded so violent and so invigorating. Marty hanging over the stage like some black apparition. Tom bashing your bloodbeat. ‘Larry from Knoxville’ doing the understated essentials. Warren writhing in the corner with whatever instrument he feels like playing. And Cave, of course, omnipresent as ever.

“Animal X” drone to start off, and you could bite the atmosphere with your teeth. Touch it, lick it, scratch with your tongue. The setlist (see below) is a wet dream. Cave keeps asking the audience what they want to hear (“Foi Na Cruz” seemed a popular choice – good on you, Moscow) and keeps playing what he wants to play. By track four, I’m in emotional bloody tatters, and track four is the raw and majestic “Higgs Boson Blues” which has slowly become…

Ah fuck it. There are no words. He did “God Is In The House”, for Christ’s sake. He did that. It was religious.    


SETLIST (from memory, after a glass of whisky)

Water’s Edge
The Weeping Song
Red Right Hand
Higgs Boson Blues
Mermaids
The Ship Song
From Her To Eternity
Stranger Than Kindness
Love Letter
Into My Arms
Tupelo
West Country Girl
Black Hair
The Mercy Seat
Jubilee Street
Up Jumped The Devil
People Ain’t No Good
Breathless
God Is In The House
Jack The Ripper 
Push The Sky Away