NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS at the Sony Centre, Thursday, July 31. Rating: NNNNN
Nick Cave seems to have aged in reverse in the 16 months since he and his six Bad Seeds last ignited a Toronto stage. Back then, the 56-year-old Australian musician called upon the assistance of a children’s choir and string section to fill out songs from his atmospheric Push The Sky Away album at Massey Hall.
How to top that? Upsized to the cushy Sony Centre and minus the kiddies, he brought his signature ferocity directly to the people by climbing several rows deep into the crowd to spit folkloric violence at eye level during menacing hits Tupelo and Stagger Lee. Cave waded through waves of outstretched arms that resembled either a Gandhi-esque crowd scene or a zombie apocalypse depending on the cadence of his booming baritone.
Either way he sounded thrilling, as did the Seeds as they alternated between thunderous live staples like The Mercy Seat and From Her To Eternity, slow-burning cuts from Push The Sky Away and piano ballads, including God Is In The House, a satire about suburban paranoia that he hilariously tailored to Toronto: “We have a pretty little square / We have a crackhead for a mayor.”
Easily one of the year’s best shows.
