First Direct Arena, Leeds
This hugely moving concert spans every corner of the human experience, finding Cave at a point where time has deepened his music’s power and his connection with his audience

When Nick Cave fronted the Birthday Party in small clubs, he would sing or scream lyrics at the audience, and yell “Wake up! Express yourself!” only inches from some startled innocent in the front row. More than 40 years later, the besuited 67-year old still skips around the stage with the improbable energy of his younger self, and sings entire passages clutching the outstretched hand of some lucky fan. As the music has evolved from avant noise to piano balladry to emotional transcendence, the Bad Seeds have found themselves performing in ever vaster spaces – but that has simply become another means to dial every instrument and feeling up to the max.

This incredible concert lasts two-and-a-half hours, includes 21 songs and spans every possible corner of the human experience, gradually increasing in intensity. Cave’s personal tragedies – the deaths of two sons – seem to have deepened his music’s power and the empathy between performer and audience, but amid much profundity there is humour. “I seem to be surrounded by a lot of extraordinary gentlemen … forgive me, extraordinary, ageing gentlemen,” he deadpans as fans touch his billowing flares. “I bring something out in them.”