Nick Cave Red Hand Files

I just got back from seeing Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files evening in Manchester. The tickets for this sold out immediately, so I was very pleased to be four rows from the front in the stalls.

I have long been a big fan of Nick Cave and his Red Hand files is a new initiative where he engages directly with his audience on a Q and A session where they can ask literally whatever they want. It takes a very brave man to open themselves up to such a scenario as anything is possible. The first few questions were all about bereavement and I began to think this could be the theme for the evening, three hours of talking about death. Fortunately the questions then opened up to a wider range of subjects including his process for writing songs. I have no issues with questions on death, but three hours would for me been a bit of a stretch.

In between Q and A Nick also played a series of stripped down songs on the piano. This was fascinating as I am used t seeing him with The Bad Seeds which is a powerful sonic collective and it was great to hear songs like “Into my arms” “Papa won’t leave you Henry” and “Stagger Lee” in this format. The Bridgewater Hall maintained their perfect record of problematic sound for the first half of the evening, but fortunately this improved as the night went on. I have always been impressed by the quality of Nick Cave’s writing and the sign of a great song is that it works brilliantly on a single instrument.

We learned a great deal about Nick through the course of the evening, including his admiration for Mark Smith from The Fall, Marc Bolan who he rated above Bowie in terms of lyrics and his meeting with Bob Dylan at Glastonbury. The Red Hand Files is a very different type of audience interaction and only a seasoned performer would be able to truly pull this off. Every question, no matter how daft was met with genuine professionalism. When one audience member shouted “Play some music” and the following one said “I’ll be brief” Nick commented “You take as fucking long as you like”. This type of confidence and professionalism is rare in an artist and Nick Cave remains one of the smartest minds and superb entertainers on planet Earth, always developing his craft in music, film and writing.

The Red Hand Files is very different to anything I have seen before and its refreshing to see an artist pushing the boundaries of what is possible in an age where a lot of the time music has become very predictable and dull.