ATP NY '09: Dirty Three (w/Nick Cave)

Last year the most Twittered event of the first day of the festival may have been the bed bugs that were present (thankfully no reports this year!), but this year the most talked about moment of the day came very early on when Nick Cave joined the Dirty Three for their performance of Ocean Songs. For the press that were in the room early we got a sneak peak as Cave's white, grand piano was wheeled onto the stage followed by Cave himself telling the roadies where to place. This was of course followed by the quick Tweets and dashes outside to find friends milling about the hotel grounds.

Word quickly spread that Cave was joining the band on stage and the room was far more filled then any of the first two sets had been. The story of the set was Nick Cave, but what's lost in that was the dynamic, energetic set the full band put on. Led by crazed violinist Warren Ellis, the band blasted their way through their legendary record with Ellis showing off a never ending supply of energy. Between songs he turned the set into something of a 'Storytellers' version of the set making jokes about the meaning of their primarily instrumental songs. It was funny banter, but the highlight came when Ellis playing violin also managed to start kicking Jim White's cymbals in time with the music. It was a pretty special moment of a very special set.

Obviously people are still talking about Nick Cave's performance, though I found more then a few native Australian's who felt the Dirty Three should have been just that - three. Even without Cave's presence I'm pretty sure the performance of Ocean Songs would have been pretty mind blowing, but hearing it with Cave on piano was the first mind blowing moment of a festival that was full of them.