Concert Review: Nick Cave at ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Nick Cave stopped in Austin for his North American solo tour and delivered a raw performance full of fervent piano arrangements and emotional vocals on October 23, 2023.
Written by Miranda Garza
Photos by Elina Carrasco
There was strength in the simplicity of Nick Cave’s bittersweet show at ACL Live at Moody Theater on Monday October 23, 2023.
All three tiers of the Moody Theater’s seating — the floor, mezzanine, and balcony — filled with people rushing to their seats until the lights dimmed at exactly 8:20 p.m., harkening the Australian singer. In true Nick Cave fashion, he donned a single-breasted black suit with an open-collared shirt underneath. “I know this place,” the 66-year-old musician laughed as he sat at his Yamaha piano, referencing the last time he played at the venue with his Bad Seeds for the 2014 taping of Austin City Limits. To the right of the singer stood Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood, well in the sight of the audience, yet feet away from the single spotlight that shone over Cave. Rich notes rang through the auditorium as the 66-year-old musician opened his show with the somber “Girl in Amber.”
Following the song, Cave stood up and made his way to the front of the stage, thanking and greeting the audience. “What we’re doing [tonight] is looking inside some of these songs you might know. Some of them are kind of the way I brought them to the band — just things on the piano — and the Bad Seeds sort of turned them into what they turned them into. It requires something of us. It requires us to go on a little adventure with some of these songs and requires a certain amount of concentration and maybe it requires something of you guys too, which is to listen,” he said before returning to his 88 keys and resuming the show with a stripped rendition of “Higgs Boson Blues.” After each refrain, the singer grimly repeated the phrase “Here I go” over an intricate yet scattered arrangement, almost as if to convince himself of leaving rather than anyone else.
The show's 26-song setlist spanned over 15 of Cave’s albums, both from his solo endeavors and from his past music groups Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, and even his debut post-punk band The Boys Next Door. The singer shed light on his more recognizable works like The Boatman’s Call’s heart-rendering “(Are You) the One I’ve Been Waiting For?” and “Into My Arms,” while also saving space for B-sides like the forlorn “Euthanasia.”
Cave prefaced most songs with details behind their origin, meaning, or both. When introducing the melancholic “Jesus of the Moon,” he explained it as “A song about a guy who leaves his girl in the hope of renewing his life and maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all. This song sits within the moments of decision and regret.” Full of contrite, the piece built with a recoiled intensity as he crooned, “‘Cause people often talk about being scared of change / But for me I'm afraid of things staying the same / ‘Cause the game is never won / By standing in any one place / For too long.”
Collinwood set down his bass for the harrowing “I Need You,” where two spotlights illuminated Cave as he played the grief-stricken composition. A doleful piano line filled the venue, and the singer carried out the song repeating the lyric “just breathe” until he ran out of breath.
“This song is for the people in the balcony,” uttered Cave as he introduced the fittingly titled “Balcony Man.” This shout-out garnered a roar from the concertgoers in the venue’s highest tier, from whom the singer encouraged what he called “audience participation.” “All over America, when I sing the word ‘balcony,’ the people in the balcony lose their fucking shit,” he added. Slow piano keys guided the ballad, and just as the singer anticipated, every mention of “balcony” was met with an array of cheers from the upper level’s crowd members. Cave introduced follow-up “Carnage” as a song for the people on the floor, encouraging an alternative “audience participation” where “I sing it and you shut the fuck up,” which amassed even more cheers and laughs before faint notes brushed below the singer’s baritone voice as he sang the opening lines, “I always seem to be saying goodbye / And rolling through the mountains like a train.”
Warm blue and orange lights gleamed behind Cave for “Jubilee Street” as his ornate playing grew louder with each verse, along with his pompous vocals. The singer “closed” his show with the slow-paced “Push The Sky Away,” before briefly leaving the stage and returning for an 8-song encore. Cave drew from all corners of his discography and performed Grinderman’s “Man on the Moon” and “Palaces of Montezuma,” as well as The Boys Next Door’s “Shivers,” which he dedicated to the band’s late guitarist Rowland S. Howard. He ended the night with the bleak “People Ain’t No Good,” with his deep cadence and the lush melody of the piano keys bringing a memorable end to the performance.
Once Cave departed from the stage, the audience was broken from his spell that they found themselves under for the past 2 hours and 10 minutes. Overall, he delivered an entrancing piano-led performance and an unforgettable night on his rare solo tour.