Nick Cave & Warren Ellis @ Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

I had tickets to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at the Grand Ol' Opry in October 2020.  That is until Covid happened.  And while not the same venue, I'll take any chance to see on of Australia's greatest performers.

I drove up to Asheville and decided to stay the night.  So after settling into the Hilton, I wandered through town until I came across The Lobster Trap, where I sat at the bar and ate Steam Bowl Mussels while enjoying a Highland Pilsner.

 

I actually had seen Cave do a show with Warren Ellis and Jim White, when Ellis and White were still the Dirty Three.  But that was 2000 - an awesome show I went to with Dad - so would things be much different.  Um, musically, yes!  In 2000 it was Cave playing Bad Seeds stuff with the others providing just a backing.  Since then Cave and Ellis have spent considerable time writing together, both for soundtracks as well as for the Bad Seeds.  I am in nearly the same seat as when I saw the Bad Seeds here in 2017.  A full band came out and Ellis perched to the side of the stage, seated to play mostly keyboards in his lap, while Cave was front and center.  The set consisted of mostly new Bad Seeds stuff as well as well as 4 tracks from their Cave & Ellis' latest release, Carnage.  None of it was familiar to me, but still great, until they did a cover of T-Rex's Cosmic Dancer.  The set continued in the same fashion - beautiful, unknown-to-me, Bad Seeds songs.  I was surprised that Ellis didn't play more violin.  His performances in The Dirty Three were frantic and mesmerizing.  This performance seemed more subdued than I expected.  2 Encores saw them dip into some old songs Into My Arms (one of my top 40 songs) and Henry Lee were icing on a cake.

Definitely worth the trip up to Asheville (that's 4 of the last 5 shows I've seen up here).  Lets hope we get to see the Bad Seeds again soon as well.

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Setlist

The Crap Facts:
This is my 469th concert.
This is my 3rd concert at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium.
This is my 10th concert in Asheville.
This is my 104th concert in North Carolina.
This is my 272nd concert in the US.
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis are the 545th band I've seen.