Nick Cave delivers quiet intensity at the State Theatre

Nick Cave performed his solo tour at the State Theatre in Minneapolis on October 2, 2023.Darin Kamnetz for MPR

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October 03, 2023

“We’re going to try to play a bunch of songs in very reduced forms,” Nick Cave told his audience at the State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis Monday night. “We’re going to get right to the heart of these songs.” Throughout his two-hour set, Cave offered his adoring fans a performance that balanced quiet intimacy with his signature fiery intensity.

The show came as part of an 18-stop solo North American tour with Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood, a departure from the Australian performer’s treks with his band the Bad Seeds or with longtime collaborator Warren Ellis. It was Cave’s first Twin Cities visit since 2019, and first solo tour run since early 2020.

The anticipation created an electric atmosphere in the sold-out State Theatre long before he even took the stage. The primarily Gen-X crowd chattered in clusters and packed the lobby, even snaking up several flights of stairs to wait in line for their chance to purchase merchandise.

Nick Cave waves at the crowd — Nick Cave performed his solo tour at the State Theatre in Minneapolis on October 2, 2023.
Darin Kamnetz for MPR

When Cave and Greenwood finally did take the stage, attendees immediately jumped to their feet, giving a standing ovation before they played a single note. This would become a recurring action throughout the rest of the evening. Cave greeted his fans warmly as he took a seat at a grand piano, repeatedly thanking them for their enthusiasm. Clearly distance had made the heart grow fonder on both sides of the stage.

Unburdened by the additional frills of a full band or supporting vocals, Cave’s voice became the sole focus. This isolation of his vocals offered the latitude to explore the bounds of his voice, manipulating elements like volume, tone, and texture to turn it into a third instrument on stage. He snarled refrains, stretched out phrases, and belted choruses. Several times throughout the performance, he simply spoke in his husky baritone voice over piano chords. These modulations laid bare the emotion in each of the songs, offering attendees a new perspective on familiar tracks. On “I Need You,” now stripped of its atmospheric guitar and melancholy synths, Cave ended the song by repeating the phrase “just breathe,” straining his voice until it gasped with desperation, and he ran out of breath. It was shocking and captivating, earning him thunderous applause and whistles of appreciation.

Cave supported the reconfiguration of his classic tracks with adjustments in piano arrangements. He played sparsely, avoiding major flourishes or additions in his performance, and instead focused on pounding, simple chords that underscored the intensity of his vocals. He toyed with the dynamics, timbre, and force of the piano, but also leveraged pacing to reframe the meaning of his tracks. With a small adjustment in speed, Cave directed his audience to observe the emotional heart of each song. As he sang “Girl in Amber,” Cave drew out the verses, inserting aching pauses to allow the weight of grief and loss to truly sink in for his audience.

Nick Cave on stage — Nick Cave performed his solo tour at the State Theatre in Minneapolis on October 2, 2023.
Darin Kamnetz for MPR

The piano also presented a visual shift in Cave’s usual stage presence. Normally a performer who constantly roams the stage and even enters the crowd, Cave mostly remained behind the piano, leaving only to stand and wave to his audience between songs. Nevertheless, he played physically, cutting a Phantom of the Opera-like figure as he hunched over the keyboard and pounded the keys before throwing himself back on the bench with the sheer force of his playing. Once he finished a song, he theatrically threw his sheet music to the floor.

If Cave was playing stripped down, Greenwood’s bass accents were almost imperceptible. Accompanying most tracks, Greenwood’s sparse bass was subtle, adding depth to the piano’s chords. On a handful of songs, Greenwood added small yet exciting flairs of his own without the piano. While the focus of the performance was obviously on Cave, some audience members may have wished for more opportunities to enjoy Greenwood’s capabilities.

While the structure of the songs may have changed, the stripped-down structure didn’t detract from Cave’s signature dark and foreboding lyricism. In fact, its themes were given a greater spotlight without the distraction of other instrumentation. Choosing songs from across his decades-long solo and Bad Seeds catalog, Cave unfolded his songs like grand epics, verbosely detailing visceral imagery of misdeeds, violence, and pain. Without the smoothing out of a backing band, some lyrics felt jarring and unexpected, such as “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry” with its repeated mention of murder and human atrocities. At the same time, tales of love and attraction were made clearer and more moving. In the slowly swelling “Into My Arms,” Cave sang “I don’t believe in the existence of angels / But looking at you I wonder if that’s true / But if I did I would summon them together / and ask them to watch over you.” From the audience, fists pumped in the air to punctuate fan favorite lines.

Throughout, Cave had his audience in the palm of his hand. The crowd showered him in standing ovations, with many leaping to their feet after every single song and instance Cave stood up from the piano bench. Audience members across the auditorium called out their love to the musicians in moments of silence, requested specific songs, and told him how far they had traveled to see him perform. Cave seemed to drink in every comment. He volleyed back with them, keeping up a stream of witty banter with the audience. (When one attendee in the balcony loudly wished him a happy birthday in between songs, Cave good-naturedly shot back “That was two weeks ago. It’s kind of you to remember, but it’s not my f***ing birthday.”) In between jokes, he offered insights and one-liners about the meanings of tracks, directed portions of the crowd to cheer at certain times, and dedicated songs to specific audience members. Fans couldn’t get enough.

The audience participation continued into the encore, with Cave taking requests shouted from the crowd. He and Greenwood played six more songs, featuring T. Rex covers and deep cuts from Cave’s days in Grinderman -- who, though Cave didn’t seem to remember, did in fact perform at First Avenue in 2010. As chaotic as the encore became with the number of requests and volume of pleas, it was clear that these were passionate fans.

When he finally wrapped, Cave received one final extended standing ovation. Over the sustained cheering, Cave promised a Bad Seeds visit to Minneapolis next year. No doubt most of the attendees at the State were eager to mark their calendars for his return.

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