Huge Thanks to ianmacd for sharing his recording on Dime.
RECORDING:
Type: Audience master, recorded 8 metres back from the suspended left-hand
side PA stack.
Source: Factory-matched pair of Schoeps CCM 41V microphones (DINa mounted) ->
Marantz PMD661 recorder with Oade Concert Mod
(-18 dB gain/44.1 kHz/24 bit WAV)
Lineage: Audacity 2.0.5
* Normalised to 0 dB.
* Renormalised tracks 10 - 14 to 0 dB.
* Applied variable envelope amplification across recording for
consistent listening experience.
* Attenuated audience noise.
* Added fades.
* Split tracks.
* Converted to 16 bit.
-> FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.3.0 20130526]
Taper: ianmacd
SET LIST:
01. [04:32] We No Who U R
02. [07:04] Jubilee Street
03. [04:27] Do You Love Me?
04. [06:56] Tupelo
05. [00:22] [banter]
06. [05:54] Red Right Hand
07. [05:34] Mermaids
08. [00:31] [banter]
09. [06:20] From Her To Eternity
10. [03:27] West Country Girl
11. [05:22] God Is In The House
12. [03:58] Love Letter
13. [01:06] [banter]
14. [03:40] Watching Alice
15. [00:17] [banter]
16. [10:13] Higgs Boson Blues
17. [03:39] Into My Arms
18. [05:32] Hiding All Away
19. [05:16] The Mercy Seat
20. [09:54] Stagger Lee
21. [04:43] Push The Sky Away
22. [02:30] [encore break]
23. [05:57] We Real Cool
24. [00:22] [banter]
25. [04:21] Babe, You Turn Me On
26. [06:51] Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
27. [03:57] Deanna
28. [05:46] Give Us A Kiss
Total running time: 128:44
NOTES:
The distinguished Nick Cave is playing two nights in Amsterdam, a couple of
weeks apart. The second of these shows is actually the first, in a sense,
because it was only when that gig sold out within mere minutes that another,
tonight's, was added.
This second show hasn't sold out, but it must have come damn close. It's
pretty packed in here tonight.
Support comes from the excellent Shilpa Ray.
The wankers around me don't really give her a chance and talk through most of
her set, but I do my best to tune them out and enjoy her one-woman odyssey of
vocals and harmonium.
On the way out, I avail myself of a copy of her new EP, the observantly titled
and reasonably priced 'It's All Self Fellatio', released on Cave's own Bad
Seed label.
The man we've come to see takes to the stage at 21:00, equal parts enigma and
charisma. Dressed in a black suit and sporting his patented slicked-back,
dyed-black, thinning straggles of hair in a look that only a man of some
considerable repute can hope to pull off without ridicule.
For more than two hours, Cave holds the Heineken Music Hall in his spell with
a sublime performance. It's unbelievable to think that he's been doing this
for more than 30 years. 56 years young, he belts it out this evening with the
verve of a teenager who has been granted 15 minutes of stage time by a jaded
promoter.
Incidentally, I'm going to take this opportunity to express my boundless
contempt for the irritating drones who barge a path through the crowd all
evening, peddling beer from the stupid green cylinder strapped to their back,
nearly taking my eye out with their crass little Heineken flagpole and, much
more sinfully, causing spontaneous conversations to erupt during the music.
They're invariably young, probably students, and whilst I understand that
everyone needs a way to pay the rent, I'd rather see these fuckers living on
the street under a cardboard box than have them interfere with the music I
have paid good money to come and see. And for what? So that the management can
eek out a few extra beer sales.
The same diminutive girl seems to be ploughing an invisible furrow, beating a
path that takes her right past my spot all evening. Anyone in her way is
unceremoniously barged aside, me included. Conversations about beer and change
are struck up with no regard for anyone who might be more interested in the
music.
It's bad enough when there's noise from the bar at a gig, but the ongoing
subjugation of art by commerce has now reached the point that the soulless
wankers who run this place feel entitled to ensure that the bar is now
everywhere and thereby effectively unavoidable.
They casually and disrespectfully inflict its roving annoyances on the 49 out
of every 50 of us who have no interest in buying. God forbid a thimbleful of
beer should go unsold tonight, or one plastic glass fewer get noisily crushed
underfoot.
Fuck those people. Why is rock music treated with such blatant disregard? The
corporate canines wouldn't dare try that shit with opera-goers or classical
music buffs, would they?
Now, where was I?
Ah yes, Nick Cave. I'll keep it short.
There's plenty of engagement with the audience tonight. Cave frequently
approaches right to the edge of the stage, one such occasion being 'Higgs
Boson Blues'. "Can you hear my heartbeat?" he asks, as grasping hands make
eager contact with his chest.
Other highlights are the ever-dependable 'The Mercy Seat' and the grippingly
spun yarn of 'Stagger Lee', the latter belted out here with the kind of
fervour that might cause you to mistake Cave for a character in the story,
rather than its narrator. It's an absolutely absorbing performance.
The sound in the HMH tonight is impeccable and really, REALLY loud. I have to
turn the microphone inputs down so far that the audience sound as if they've
gone home for much of the gig. The gunfire during 'Stagger Lee' comes bursting
through with a crackle like someone pouring water into the PA.
There's also a deep, rich low end in evidence tonight. Just listen to the
thunder that opens 'Tupelo' or the grinding 'Hiding All Away' for an
illustration.
More than two hours of music finally come to an end with a new song, 'Give Us
A Kiss'. Slowly, we come back down to Earth.
The recording is superb. I really couldn't be happier with it and a lot of
Nick Cave fans will be beaming from ear to ear after giving it a spin. I
certainly hope so, anyway.
As always, samples are included in the comments to assist in deciding whether
or not to download it.
Nick will be back at this venue in two weeks for his original sold-out show. I
will be there, too, microphones at the ready.
20131104nicabaseam
