Nick Cave-fronted noise outfit Grinderman is in town – and every member is a balladeering advertisement for bushranger beardwear. Violinist extraordinaire Warren Ellis and drummer Jim Sclavunos prove the untamed look remains hip. Bassist Martyn Casey sports a more trimmed affair and shoulder-length locks while the prince of darkness seems content pared back to a simple handlebar moustache.
There’s nothing pared back about Grinderman though. Give these guys musical instruments at the risk of your eardrums. Such joyous predilection for noise from the youth-challenged inevitably draws the description ‘mid-life crisis’. Ignore this, friends. It’s horseshit. Ellis has been a fervent purveyor of distortion for a decade or more. Sclavunos had a stint drumming in Sonic Youth in the early ‘80s. And a quick once over The Birthday Party will surely uncover some raucous antecedents.
Anyway, Grinderman is not undiluted cacophony. Instead, the band blasts the crowd with a knife-edged balance of melody and chaos coupled to Cave’s trademark lyrical themes of women, sex, love and death with delightful skill.
And if the whoops accompanying the stabbing keys and fuzzing electric bouzouki of Depth Charge Ethel indicate audience approval, Get It On (Cave’s grimy ode to his inspirational demons) offers conclusive proof. There’s a flurry of waved fists, and lyrics are shouted back with gusto as Cave grandly declaims his words of wisdom. Behind, it’s a double dose of percussion as Ellis mercilessly beats his own mini-kit with a pair of maracas in support of Sclavunos’ echoing bongos while Casey’s distorted groove drives the song relentlessly.
Electric Alice and Grinderman reign in the tempo, undulating like a dark oil slick over rolling ocean. Honeybee is supercharged. Synths screech and Ellis produces chainsaw sounds from a pint-sized fendocaster while Cave flits and buzzes at the adoring crowd. Jaggedly sinuous, When My Love Comes Down follows, and all-too-soon the Grinderman beast is re-caged after a teasing rendition of No Pussy Blues. There’s probably something recursive in that for everyone.
“Nick Cave solo” proves a misnomer as his fellow Grindermen re-emerge in tow. They open with a drifting, club-lounge re-arrangement of Red Right Hand. It’s all brushed drums, soft ivories and finger-plucked fiddle while Cave’s ale-dark voice slips between – dramatic yet intimate. Then, in a flash, the Grinderman spirit appears as the song concludes in a mania of sawing violin, mashed piano and crashing cymbals.
Intermittent crackling from the left stack spoils the beauty though. The situation worsens during an up-tempo gun-ballad version of The Weeping Song full of swirling violin and martial drums. But it’s The Ship Song that’s a write-off as the stack repeatedly cuts out. Cave finally calls an apologetic halt.
Roadies swarm and the problem is quickly rectified. The band takes revenge by giving Deanna a proper Grinderman reaming. Love Letter and the ever-popular Into My Arms form the first half of the gentle bracket, with the latter needing little encouragement to turn into a hushed sing-along. The second half is the bawdily amusing Babe You Turn Me On from 2004’s Abattoir Blues, while Messiah Ward wedges itself cacophonously in between. Cave’s ironic yet deadpan serious examination of ‘churchianity’ God is in the House also gets an airing – with Cave even pulling up the chorus to backtrack and include the normally dropped “homos roaming the streets in packs” verse.
But, above the minutiae, what stands out is Cave’s brilliance in reinventing Bad Seeds classics. And, although Tupelo gets the pounding Grinderman treatment, it’s an achingly sparse rendition of The Mercy Seat assuming primacy tonight, outmatching even the encore call-and-response brilliance of Lyre of Orpheus and the unexpectedly touching second-encore pleasure that is Into My Arms b-side Right Now I’m A-roaming.
