It’s almost midway through the month where the leaves turn and there’s finally a chill in the air, making it so the only thing needed to round out the season at this point is the music of Nick Cave. Serendipitously, the goth maestro will be in town for a few days this week, doing a bit of singing or signing – depending on when you happen to catch him.
The latter sees Cave sitting down in Harvard Book Store Wednesday (October 11) to ink his signature onto copies of last year’s memoir Faith, Hope and Carnage. Culled from some 40 hours of interviews he did during the pandemic with Irish writer Seán O’Hagan – who received a co-writing credit on the book – it’s just been released in paperback. The long sold-out event, limited to just 100 tickets, is fraught with all sorts of rules like “no personalization,” “no photos” and “no standby line,” so you’re much better off hitching your ride to Cave’s solo show at The Wang tonight (October 10), which still has tickets available.
The gig this evening is part of the Nick Cave: Live in North America trek, a rare solo run for the native Australian, who played the same Tremont Street venue in March 2022 with his fellow countryman Warren Ellis.
This time around, Cave will mostly find himself established behind a grand piano – though likely not a Fazioli – and joined by Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood on bass accompaniment.
Expect the show to lean heavily on the extensive Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds catalog and perhaps a sprinkling of compositions originally by his past musical projects Grinderman, The Boys Next Door – which morphed into the artsy post punk/gothic rock The Birthday Party – as well as songs from his more recent collaborations with Ellis.
The intimate and minimalist setup led by Cave’s haunting baritone singing about murder, sex horror and heartbreak is about as perfect a soundtrack to an early autumn night as you’ll find. At the very least, it’ll leave a more haunting impression than that new Exorcist flick.
NICK CAVE :: Tuesday, October 10 at The Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 8 p.m., all ages, $29.50 to $79.50 :: Event info :: Advance tickets