Nick Cave - Theatre Royal Nottingham, 30 April 2015

I've been to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave and the wonderful Grinderman before, but over the 30 years I've been a fan of Nick Cave, only about 3 times, which is hardly satisfactory.

I found out about this event by accident, luckily just in time to secure tickets, as usual a fraught experience of website failure and timing out and each time my seats got higher and further away, but I got them and that was the important thing.

Then there were the months of anticipation and worry...the tickets had been £45 each and I had encouraged my husband, my best friend and her husband that they also needed to experience this rare event. They trusted me implicitly as the last time I'd convinced them to do something similar it had been to see Grinderman at Rock City in Nottingham and that had been an amazing hot, sweaty, ear achingly loud, up close and personal night of pure genius. My concern  this time came from the knowledge that this would by no means emulate that particular evening. This was the Concert Hall, a spacious, towering venue, hardly up close and by no means personal. My thoughts on gigs are the bigger the venue the more removed you become, surely it would be better to be at home with You Tube. I was expecting it to be more of a recital type evening, thoughtful and sedate, rather than noisy and rude.

We arrived in Nottingham and parked close to the venue. We (or maybe just me!) then had that pre-gig madness that you get, where you get anxious about straying too far, you might miss something, what happens if they come on early and we miss the beginning - or worse still they don't let us in! These things never happen but drive you to decide to have drinks at the venue bar, when you know you should really nip across the road to an actual pub. This resulted in a £17.50 round of lack lustre drinks in plastic glasses, but what can you do when you are the type of person who checks they have the tickets every 5 minutes from leaving the house to gaining entry.

Once in, although we were high up I could see we had great seats. The leg room was not bad and we had an uninterrupted view straight down to the stage. It was a simple set, draped in velvet curtains, boudoir style which were lit with red, white or blue lights according to the mood of each song. We were also very central. The musicians were cocooned in little stations, with a piano for Nick front and centre.

I only took the one photo, phones at gigs really annoy me...why would you spend £45 to watch a gig through a phone screen? I annoyed myself just getting this photo, as it meant a momentary lack of attention to the gig and anyway, no matter how good your phone is you're never going to get a great picture.

The atmosphere was of excited anticipation, it was hot and there was a definite buzz which erupted into a barrage of hoots and applause as the band entered stage, with a crescendo as Nicks spindly form gangled onto stage. Despite years living away, his voice has not lost that rich, deep Australian twang that gives him his distinct sound.

From the outset it was clear that the band including the eccentric Warren Ellis, Thomas Wydler, Martyn Casey and a last minute stand in for Barry Adamson were determined make this expansive, restricted (by it's seating) venue become friendly, intimate and inclusive. They were in good spirits and for me the banter and heckling that for some may have made this gig feel slightly lacking in momentum, was what made it for me.

It kicked off with Water's Edge from Push The Sky Away and then went back in time to Weeping Song, took it up a notch with the now widely known (thanks to X-Files and Peaky Blinders)  Red Right Hand. It was an emotional roller-coaster of ups and downs from Jack the Ripper to Brompton Oratory and I was really excited to hear what he described as a one time only performance of Tupelo* and a nerve jangling From Her to Eternity. It really was an eclectic mix that spanned the decades and the emotions, something for everyone. The full house itself was an eclectic mix from old to young and weird to wonderful. I literally spotted children and grannies, goths and glamour pusses.

Nobody could fail to be hypnotised by Nicks charisma, from his strange spiky, stuttering dancing, his lilting soft tomes when singing a ballad, the screaming, bobbing dervish that gets right down into the crowd for the more frantic numbers. After the first couple of tracks he threw the choices open to the audience and had us laughing when he derided those shouting for Grinderman titles, openly admitted to be wholly unable to play certain songs, couldn't remember the lyrics to others "there are so many lyrics" he remarked at one point and in over 30 plus years there must be. In my own mind I was trying to work out if we were all being played a little, it was endearing to see him being anything but perfect, but I did wonder how much he was playing to the requests or were they just playing the set list they had already planned? But making it seem like we had some control,was what brought about the intimacy and made it into a wonderful, inclusive experience.*

We certainly got our money's worth almost 2 and a half, with the encore lasting for 7 songs - he did check that we were all OK to stay late though!

The concert  was finally brought to a melodic close with Push Away the Sky and we all left feeling like we'd been involved in something special. My low point was no Stagger Lee, I would have loved to have my ears tortured by that particular tale, but it wasn't to be this time. Highlights for me were The Ship Song, God is in the House, Tupelo and Her to Eternity during which I was mesmerised by Warren Ellis, a whirling dervish of instrumental madness frantically playing and at one point launching his violin bow towards an unsuspecting Thomas Wydler before patiently awaiting a replacement.

For me it was everything I had expected and more and I left with a big smile on my face and even now a week later I can still invoke the evening when I close my eyes, see the set, hear the songs which I think is a great indicator of a good night.

The full set list, courtesy of setlist.fm was as follows;

Water's Edge, The Weeping Song, Red Right Hand, Brompton Oratory, Higgs Boson Blues, Tupelo, Mermaids, The Ship Song, Into My Arms, From Her to Eternity, West Country Girl, And No More Shall We Part, I Let Love In, Up Jumped the Devil, Black Hair, The Mercy Seat, Jubilee Street.
Encore: We No Who U R, God Is in the House, Breathless, Stranger Than Kindness, Jack the Ripper, The Lyre of Orpheus, Grinderman, Push the Sky Away

*Reviewing the set lists from the other concerts will give the answer to this! Tupelo also played at Hammersmith Apollo by the looks of it.