Melbourne, Australia · art rock · gothic rock

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

1 upcoming festival

Six decades of sermon, murder ballad and grief turned into something closer to communion — a band that can level a field with one held organ note.

Nick Cave formed The Bad Seeds in 1983, after the collapse of his previous group The Birthday Party, initially alongside Mick Harvey and Einstürzende Neubauten's Blixa Bargeld. The line-up has turned over many times since, with multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis becoming Cave's principal writing partner over the past two decades.

The band's music has moved between raw punk blues, piano-led ballads and, more recently, drone- and loop-based arrangements built around Ellis's string and electronic textures. Cave's writing draws on scripture, the murder ballad tradition and, in the later records, direct reckonings with bereavement. Live, the group is known for the contrast between quiet, sustained passages and Cave's habit of pressing into the crowd.

art rockgothic rock