Pompeii, 19 July 2025
The Amphitheatre of Pompeii is one of the oldest surviving Roman amphitheatres. It is located in the ancient city of Pompeii, near Naples, and was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, that also buried the city of Pompeii and the neighbouring town of Herculaneum.
It was also the stage setting for Nick Cave and Colin Greenwood to play songs that Nick, and a couple of others, had recorded over his extensive career. Stripped back to grand piano and bass guitar. A light show that shone two spotlights on both while playing, occasionally sweeping across the background ruins and audience. A sombre setting in some respects with a set list that reflected some of the highlights and tragedies that have impacted on one of our own personal favourite musicians.
A special mention of Colin Greenwood, he moved out of the shadows when playing, retiring back into darkness when only the sound of the grand piano and Nick’s vocal was needed. Unassuming, he looked like a man who had been picked out from the audience to support the main attraction. As we all know that was never the case. A consummate musician, effortlessly gliding over the bass strings, the perfect complement to the piano and Nick.
Much of the setlist was taken from the most recent Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds tour, though with the full band on stage there was a raging dynamic that fed into the songs he played when we saw them in Glasgow.
While the group energy was missing, the depth of feeling that came from the words sung by Nick was palpable. Across the hushed arena, every piano key touched, every base string strummed could be heard.
Twenty-five songs over two and a half hours of music, picked from over a dozen albums that captured a career that was once raucous but here in Pompeii, while the wild spirit remained, it seemed to have been, if not tamed, at least more subdued. The set included Avalanche written by Leonard Cohen, Cosmic Dancer by Marc Bolan and Shivers by Roland S Howard. Each introduced with an explanation of what each songwriter had meant to Nick at key points in his career, bringing beauty and structure in equal measure.
With all three no longer of this world, I suspect that if looking down, or maybe even up, they would be fulsome in their approval of how Nick has contextualised the versions he plays live.
Finishing the initial set with Push The Sky Away, few could have imagined, though thoroughly welcomed the six-song encore that followed, deep into the Pompeii night.
With the audience in fine choral mood, the finale Into My Arms, was the perfect ending to a gig that will live long in the memory. An unbelievable setting. A pair of musicians comfortable in both their friendship and appreciation of each other’s contribution. An audience beguiled by the sounds playing across this most famous of theatres.
I’ve seen Nick Cave with The Bad Seeds, Grinderman and as a solo artist. Under whichever guise he plays, he has been the consummate entertainer. On this night though, that appreciation has grown to heights I didn’t think possible. Number one with a bullet on our #RaceAcrossEurope.
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