Watch Nick Cave Bring ‘Goth Explosiveness’ to L.A.’s Fonda Theater

Last February, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds traveled to L.A.’s Fonda Theater, bringing along two back-up singers, a string section and the Silver Lake Music Conservatory children’s choir to help celebrate the release of their then-new Push the Sky Away. For the first half of the show, the band went through the album track-by-track – “It will be like playing a record,” said Cave, “except there will be lots of stupid shit said between songs” – but for act two they returned with fan favorites like “From Her to Eternity,” “Jack the Ripper,” “Love Letter” and “The Mercy Seat.”

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Below, stream the director’s cut of the performance, and see if, as Steve Appleford wrote in his next-morning recap, “Cave’s delivery matched the album’s often smoky, understated textures” and “things kicked into a heavier Goth explosiveness as he wandered to the edge of the stage, hovering over the front rows.”

Earlier this year, Cave spoke with Rolling Stone about how he’s been developing that performance style: “I’ve been working on the control more. The control is much harder than the unhinged bit. To do both together is taking some work. There are still heated discussions after the gig, the same ones we’ve been having for 20 years about ‘The Mercy Seat’ – of not letting that song run away from you.”