It has been over four years since Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds last toured the States, and while Cave has been working on a multitude of different projects, it was beginning to look as if the U.S. had seen the last of him for quite some time. Then late last year it was announced that Cave and a few other Bad Seeds had formed Grinderman: an irresponsibly vulgar, brutish rock band that eventually began playing festivals in England earlier this year. A self-titled record would follow and moderate acclaim and general hearsay would ensue.
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Grinderman
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 Entertainment
Art
Metro
Chicago, IL
July 25, 2007
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Nonetheless, contrary to preconceptions, Cave has insisted in interviews that Grinderman is not his Ziggy Stardust; that this is not an alter ego. Grinderman is not a reinvention or a side project, per say— it was actually just a natural progression of songs that simply did not fit the idea of a Bad Seeds record.
Presumably, it is also natural when a band finds themselves sitting on a bunch of new songs, all of which quite distinct from anything on their preceding records, they typically jump at the chance to play them in front of the audience. Lo and behold, fortunately enough for those in the Midwest, Chicago happened to be on Grinderman’s itinerary.
After years of waiting, the conceivably introspective Nick Cave audience crawled out of their isolation of unkempt beards and gothic attire, albeit momentarily, to exalt their demigod, the Grinderman himself. And if I may abandon all objectivity to speak candidly for a moment, while I am hesitant but not the least bit shamed to admit it: while lacking the aesthetic, I am, in essence, one of those troglodytes.
While seasoned Bad Seeds fans are immune to Cave’s deficient vocal pitch, and frankly prefer it, as the record would attest and Grinderman’s performance would further display, to no one’s surprise, Cave’s guitar playing aptitude is quite limited. Combine that with such a chaotic lineup and you may have a problem. In fact, this should be made clear up front: Grinderman’s performance was among the sloppiest sets you will ever see from a veteran headliner—even if this particular band has not yet 20 performances under its belt. If for nothing else than there were far too many bloody instruments on the stage, Grinderman seriously lacked the precision and cohesiveness of the entire Bad Seeds lineup and it showed immensely.
They knew it and you knew it. And you know what? It mattered not a wit.
The band opened the night with two steadily building and yet ultimately climaxless songs—the hauntingly stark “Grinderman” and piercing chant “Get It On”—only to alas bring the payoff with the explosion of “Depth Charge Ethel”. After that, simply put, the gig was on. You couldn’t even see Cave at times for his pornographic mustache, and his band for their transient beards and sinewy flowing hair.
While Cave’s guitar work was at times suspect at best, the band’s rhythm section was anything but. Multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis was thoroughly versatile and impressive whether shaking maracas, bellowing call-and-response backup vocals and striking an open hi hat, or plucking a 4-string Fendocastor, bouzouki or violin, and in the process creating a reverberation of sonic brilliance. Furthermore, bassist Martyn Casey and drummer Jim Sclavunos, harnessed the band’s fervid noise with steady rigor.
Despite being labored with guitar and keyboard duties, Cave was able to wander the stage with the mic in his hand and interact with the crowd on occasion. Among the band’s slower numbers, “Go Tell the Women” yielded plenty of (as expected) screams from the audience between some of Cave’s more provoking lines.
However, as anticipated, the show culminated around Grinderman’s Rosetta stone, “No Pussy Blues”. The two-chord punk rock villanelle manifesto is the kind of song that makes you want to combat and copulate simultaneously. The song leaves you with stultifying aggravation and amusement all the same. As the band exited with no more Grinderman left songs to play, they left an exceedingly anxious crowd waiting and wanting for more.
For the first encore, Cave put down the guitar in favor of the keyboard, admittedly a much more comfortable instrument. Cave proceeded with renowned Bad Seeds’ songs like “Red Right Hand” and “Deanna”, both of which executed flawlessly even as a four-piece. The second and final encore ended with the ballsy selection, “Jack the Ripper” which also was pulled off with relative ease, concluding a truly remarkable performance.
With Cave nearing 50 years of age, last year some may have thought that the Abattoir Blues record would be the closest you would get to defining raw sound of The Birthday Party. However, Grinderman, while by no means is a step backwards, has dispelled that and any doubts that Cave is getting soft in his old age. As the last half-decade has proved, Cave is as prolific and pertinent now as ever.
And if for some reason you do still have any lingering suspicions about Nick Cave’s longevity and influence, take it up with the likes of, say, Iggy Pop or Leonard Cohen. Just see where that historical argument takes you.
Setlist:
1. “Grinderman”
2. “Get It On”
3. “Depth Charge Ethel”
4. “Electric Alice”
5. “I Don't Need You (To Set Me Free)”
6. “Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars)”
7. “Go Tell the Women”
8. “Man In the Moon”
9. “When My Love Comes Down”
10. “No Pussy Blues”
11. “Love Bomb”
Encore 1:
12. “Red Right Hand”
13. “The Weeping Song”
14. “Deanna”
15. “Lyre of Orpheus”
Encore 2:
16. “The Ship Song”
17. “Jack the Ripper”
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