Nursery Rhymes for Demon Children: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Live at the Riviera

As a big fan of Nick Cave's brilliantly unhinged postpunk band The Birthday Party, I followed his career with The Bad Seeds with dedicated fervor through the 80s. Your Funeral…My Trial (1986) seemed to be his artistic peak, while Tender Prey (1988) was a commercial triumph with both his most accessible ("Deanna") and powerful ("The Mercy Seat") songs. Then in 1990 he seemed to have lost the plot. At the time The Good Son (1990) sounded like a plodding attempt to become a crooning poet-balladeer like Leonard Cohen. I didn't think it suited him, nor did his pretentious attempt at southern gothic literature in his book And The Ass Saw The Angel, published around that time. Unlike Cave's most engaging story songs, the tale of the mute savant Euchrid Eucrow was a real chore to slog through. Cave was trying to evolve as he grew older, but suffered growing pains. Despite flashes of brilliance in Let Love In (1994) and Murder Ballads (1996), I still saw him as an artist in decline, until 2004's Abbattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus. Still somewhat weighed down by his literary ambitions, he nevertheless showed he was becoming more comfortable in his aging skin, developing a wry sense of humor not unlike Tom Waits, while poking fun at his new identity as a middle-aged family man. What kind of lullabies does this man sing to his children, and how many years of therapy will be required for them to recover? Last year he shaved down the Bad Seeds into a smaller, cruder unit for the side project Grinderman, and gleefully adopted a dirty old man persona, rocking out with his cock out. Now this is the Nick Cave I used to worship, but more grizzled and funnier.

Whipped up seemingly in just a few days, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! arrived early last spring hot on the heels of Grinderman. It's by far his best album since 1994, possibly even 1986. The literary references no longer feel forced. The songs are still ambitious, but loose, like when he digs up the biblical character Lazarus and puts him, to his chagrin, in modern New York City where, after womanizing and wild exploits, ends up a junky on the streets, then the psych ward, then back to his grave. "Midnight Man" and "Moonland" are highlights of a solid collection of passionate rockers that are also hung on some of the strongest melodies Cave has ever come up with. "We Call Upon The Author" is a slavering beat rant, raving about ridiculous situations in life and the world, and calling "upon the author to explain." "I say prolix! Prolix! Something a pair of scissors can fix!"

Last night's performance at the Riviera was definitely the best of the half dozen shows I've witnessed since 1988. The large Bad Seeds ensemble sounded loose, lean, and more explosive than ever. As always since his poetically drunken shows with Dirty Three in the 90s, violinist/guitarist Warren Ellis is a treat to watch, bounding about the stage like a bearded lepprechaun/goblin. It's a credit to the strength of the new material that I enjoyed the new songs just as much as his classics, and definitely more than the few ballads he'd play ("Weeping Song," "God Is In The House") probably to recover from the overall intensity of the 18 song, two hour set. Classics that sounded better than ever included "Tupelo," "Deanna," "The Mercy Seat," "Red Right Hand," "Papa Won't Leave You Henry," and "Stagger Lee." It's ironic that an Australian who has spent his adult life in England and Brazil has a better grip on American folklore and music than almost any other American musician. His huge body of work certainly puts him up there with (and over, in my eyes) another honorary Yank, Neil Young.

1. Hold On To Yourself
2. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
3. Tupelo
4. The Weeping Song
5. Red Right Hand
6. Midnight Man
7. God Is In the House
8. Nobody's Baby Now
9. The Mercy Seat
10. Deanna
11. Moonland
12. Get Ready For Love
13. We Call Upon the Author
14. Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
15. More News From Nowhere
16. Jesus of the Moon
17. Hard On For Love
18. Stagger Lee

They also played these songs Sunday night:

Night of the Lotus Eaters
Today's Lesson
Love Letter
Hold on to Yourself
Into My Arms
Lyre of Orpheus