Nick Cave shared a touching response with a fan who said he had a Bad seeds appear early after you feel “too emotional.”
The fan contacted Cave on his online blog: The Red Hand filesand admitted to the singer that he was so moved by a live rendition of “Into My Arms” that he had to leave the show early. According to the fan, the song – which was the lead single from Cave’s tenth album with the Bad Seeds, ‘The Boatman’s Call’ – reminded him of “the great times” he had with an ex-girlfriend, whom he knows “ will never go back.”
In response, Cave shared his condolences with the fan, explaining how he has often noticed the intense emotions fans have with his music during live shows.
“Live music is a ritual that evokes a shared emotional response to which we connect our unique experiences. When I stand on stage, I see these unique and special feelings playing on every face,” he began. “This is one of the great privileges of being a frontman, and that’s why I spend so much time close to the audience. I love seeing the emotions on people’s faces – joy, sadness, longing, laughter, fear, anger.
“The concert becomes powerful and empathetically transactional as we experience the therapeutic nature of the music together. As the show progresses, there is a back and forth movement of kindness, stimulated by our mutual esteem, and the healing begins.”
He continued, urging the fan to embrace the emotions that arise and work through them, rather than avoid them. “A live concert can feel overwhelming and even frightening, as its emotional power can suddenly bring our most hidden experiences to the surface. But feelings are meant to be felt – that’s what they are for.
“We heal by acknowledging our emotions and test the resilience of our hearts by dwelling on the unbearable. It’s something music can help us with. We find that our hearts are much stronger than we thought, and what we thought was unbearable was nothing of the sort. Music brings out these subterranean feelings and at the same time saves us from them.”
Finally, he reassured the fan that even though they may feel like the “great times” are behind them, there will be many more positive experiences to come after enduring the hardships. “I’m glad you came to the Birmingham concert, but I think it was a missed opportunity to ‘leave early’ because of a feeling before it had run its course and done its healing work.
“I understand that it must be painful to feel that those ‘great times’ are behind you, but that is not the case, there will be many more to come. There will be more heartbreak too, but the hearts will break stronger,” Cave added. “We should not shy away from our feelings. We must confront them. Practice them. Get better at them. To paraphrase Samuel Beckett: pain, more pain, even better pain. This is one of the things that live music allows us to do: to hurt and heal at the same time. My advice? Go back outside. Live life to the fullest – and stay for the whole damn show. It’s great.”
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds to perform live in 2024 (Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty)
Cave shared his latest album ‘Wild God’ last year, and it was given a four star review from NME. “Bad Seeds albums are notorious for their gothic doom and gloom. Of course, this is no poptastic LOLfest, and still colored by the many shades of a life so challenging and weathered,” it read.
“But never has Cave been as free as on the dizzying ‘Frogs’, ‘Jumping for love and the open sky above’ as ‘Kris Kristofferson walks around kicking a can in a shirt he hasn’t washed in years’. With a zest for life, the once dark prince lets in the light.”
More recently it was confirmed that the record had been nominated for the 20th annual Australian Music PrizeAnd a first look at Matt Smith in the upcoming TV adaptation of Cave’s book The death of bunny Munro was shared.
The six-part Sky series is based on the musician’s 2009 novel, which focuses on the relationship between the titular father and his son as they both deal with grief while embarking on a road trip. An exact release date has not yet been shared, although the series is expected to release sometime this year.