Nick Cave Solo

“To walk on stage and perform a series of songs is an attempt to invigorate the collective soul of an audience. Whatever is happening to the soul of the audience is also happening to the soul of the performer. This mutuality is a circular and escalating intaking and outpouring of love. It is, by its very nature, a religious experience because it is in the service of a greater transcendent goodness. It is truth. The lifting of the soul is universal and can be experienced in any opera house or rock ‘n’ roll dive in the world and is, in my opinion, a legitimate religious experience.” These are the words Nick Cave wrote addressing two of his thousands of fans who contact him through the much-discussed “Red Hand Files” blog and online correspondence page, where everyone can ask him anything, even profoundly personal questions―with Cave’s answers often going viral.

More than half a century after his first "full-blown religious experience" as an on-stage performer, he has long since conquered the world, assisted by the Bad Seeds, with many of his albums ranking among the best in rock music history (though they have never been "plain" rock music), having toured dozens of times around the world to play everything from small, seedy, handful-capacity bars to vast festivals in front of crowds of people, in the mind of Nick Cave, one of the greatest songwriters of all time―whether we're talking about the haunting post-punk output of Birthday Party and the early Bad Seeds or the unpretentious lyricism of his songs about love or grief―another idea was born: a concert series with him at the piano performing songs from his entire career, but stripped of the Dionysian electricity of the Bad Seeds, perhaps the most effortlessly "well-tuned" band in the world, having only Colin Greenwood by his side.

The project was launched in 2023 from North America, and not only was it a success, but from the outset, the testimonials of those who had made sure to secure their precious tickets in time spoke of an experience of a lifetime. But "whatever is happening to the soul of the audience is also happening to the soul of the performer." That is why the multi-talented Nick Cave, who has never limited himself creatively―apart from being a singer and songwriter, he is also a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, actor (with appearances in the Wim Wenders’ films “Wings of Desire” and “Until the End of the World”), and visual artist (his new sculptures telling the story of the devil are exhibited in Brussels)―has decided to continue this on-stage “brotherhood of two” with the great Radiohead bassist.

The concert series continued in his native Australia and ends the first month of this summer in Europe with a few more performances, including three in Athens and the Main Stage of the Onassis Stegi (June 1–3). Except for a short summer break, the whole of 2024 will find him "on the road" as a major European tour will follow by the end of the year, this time with the Bad Seeds, to promote the forthcoming album "White Gold," the first, since the death of his son Arthur in 2015, that was not created, according to him, through the prism of loss.

Because at 66, Nick Cave now appreciates life more than ever. "What’s it saying to all those who’ve passed away in their multitudes if we lead lives where we’re just pathologically pissed off at the world? What does it say to those who have left the world to be in a perpetual state of misery and fury and depression and cynicism towards the world? What legacy are they leaving if that’s how we manifest the passing of that person?" he recently told the “Guardian,” and concluded that “Joy is something that leaps unexpectedly and shockingly out of an understanding of loss and suffering.”