Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Live In Melbourne
Words and Photos by Scott Gelston
A Cave In The Rain
January 31st 2026
“I am transforming,
I am vibrating,
I am glowing,
I am flying,
Look at me now.”
Jubilee Street - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Ah Melbourne! Your weather. After 40 degrees earlier in the week, the Saturday afternoon rain was both appreciated and necessary. It also set the mood as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds appeared before a drenched crowd and stepped onto a soggy stage, opening with Frogs off their current album Wild God. They followed up with two more Wild God tunes which were solid thanks in no small part to Cave’s charismatic onstage persona, but it was the quartet of backing vocalists that elevated 2004’s O Children into the evening’s first worship-worthy moment of ecstasy, as their tight rich harmonies glided against the raggedness of the Bad Seeds.
But nothing could compare to what came next: the story of Bee, the young lady from Jubilee Street. I’ll happily call it. I’ve seen over 600 artists in my lifetime, from pub gigs to stadium shows and huge festivals, but this performance of Jubilee Street could well be the greatest individual song I’ve seen performed live. It’s hard to fathom, how a non-charting song off the band’s 15th album becoming this live behemoth, but an edgy Cave played the agitated narrator in the first half of the track, before the band ripped the song and entire venue to shreds with a performance part emotional devastation, part blunt force trauma. And that’s only the fifth song of what would be a 25-song, two-hour-forty-five-minute alternative rock masterclass.
The aggression immediately continued, Cave prowled the catwalk at the front of the crowd during From Her to Eternity, egging on the audience to join him in song as he belted out the vocals. A third of the way through the show Cave asks for the distracting cameras from those in the front to be put away, especially the selfie ones “because then I see myself and that’s not good...and I still think I’m about 19 years old...” Only then are we reminded that this is in fact a performance by a 68-year-old.
It’s hard to fault the nights pacing, with Joy, I Need You and Carnage providing a small respite before the full force of The Bad Seeds is again on show for Red Right Hand, The Mercy Seat and the epic White Elephant. Breaking curfew, the band played a seven-song encore, with early career highlights Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, and The Weeping Song, coupled with modern masterpieces O Wow O Wow and Skeleton Tree. Solo and alone at the piano, Cave ends the gig with Into My Arms, a false start forgiven as he leads the crowd through the emotional sing along. As the set ends, you can see a twinkle in the 68-year-old Cave’s eye that says there is something he knows that maybe we don’t yet.
Maybe that it’s only from darkness that light can emanate, or maybe that joy will always return, or most likely, that love will always win.
Five out of five.
