After 11 years away, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds returned to the Miller High Life Theatre in Milwaukee on Wednesday night for more than two hours of musical drama.
Though Cave performed solo here in 2023, a scheduled 2020 concert was canceled due to Covid, making a June 2014 Miller High Life Theatre show the group’s most recent.
And for those who eagerly awaited it, the return provided plenty of highlights and an ebbing and flowing tide of emotion, based largely around the band’s latest record, “Wild God.”
Although there had been some advance chatter that the show wasn't selling well, the venue looked quite full to these eyes.
Cave, who burst on to the scene at the dawn of the ‘80s in Australia’s The Birthday Party, which was notorious for its onstage mayhem matched by a sound that was equally shambolic and engaging.
Over the years, Cave has forayed into a variety of collaborations and writing and recording film soundtracks, all of which have combined to create a Bad Seeds sound that’s at once gloomy and hopeful, raucous and tender. That complexity was on full display Wednesday as the band ran through the same 18-song (plus four-song encore) that it’s performed pretty much every night of the North American tour so far.
With the Bad Seeds – currently a sextet that includes Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood (who also performed here with Cave in 2023) and long-time collaborator, multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis (who wields his violin and guitar like a maestro possessed) and four background singers, three clad in glistening silvery white dresses – Cave played eight of the 10 tunes from “Wild God,” alongside 14 favorites from across his long career with the Seeds.
When the second song of the night – “Wild God” – rose to a wild crescendo and ended with Cave shouting, “thank you f*cking Milwaukee,” you could tell it would be a spirited night.
“Jubilee Street,” “From Her to Eternity,” “Tupelo” and “Red Right Hand” likewise exploded, reaching similar summits of fury, the choreographed movements of the singers you might expect to accompany “softer” material serving as a contrast to the controlled near-mayhem.
Peppered in between – providing counterpoint and tension release – were the almost cinematic feel of songs like “Cinnamon Horses” and the wrenching emotion of moments like the powerful seven-minute performance of “Joy” – during which one’s mind (and heart) immediately recalled the unspeakable loss of two children that Cave has suffered.
It was the perfect set for any fan, other than, perhaps, the pure nostalgic who might always want to trade “the new stuff” for more “oldies.” And due to the fact that there have been nine shows so far for the band to hone the set, it’s no surprise that it was pretty much flawlessly executed.
Pairing two favorites like “Red Right Hand” and “The Mercy Seat” near the end of the set was brilliant.
As always, Cave was a top-notch showman, having long ago traded engaging the audience with terror, instead befriending it witty banter and interaction of a much more benign variety. This, too, is a release valve for what could be an overwhelming experience if Cave were glum and silent between songs.
Here's hoping we don't have to wait another decade for another return of the Bad Seeds.
Setlist
Frogs
Wild God
Song of the Lake
O Children
Jubilee Street
From Her to Eternity
Long Dark Night
Cinnamon Horses
Tupelo
Conversion
Bright Horses
Joy
I Need You
Carnage
Final Rescue Attempt
Red Right Hand
The Mercy Seat
White Elephant
Encore:
Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
The Weeping Song
Skeleton Tree
Into My Arms
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
