Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Aldous Harding @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide 20/1/2026

Australian music royalty, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, brought a performance of rare intensity to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Tuesday night. They blended theatricality, sentiment, and old-school punk ferocity into a set that refused to loosen its grip.

Before all of this, indie-folk sensation Aldous Harding drew the crowd into submission. Delivering songs including Passion Babe, Warm Chris, Horizon, Imagining My Man, Living the Classics, and Leathery Whip, her voice shifted from angelic to unsettling. At times haunting, at times disarmingly tender, her stripped-back set was magnetic. In the true sense of the phrase, Harding warmed up the crowd. By the time she and her band left the stage, the arena felt calm, but ready for something bigger.

Opening with Frogs, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds arrived like a storm. Dark, intense, and electrified. There was no easing into the two and a half hours that followed. Smashing out Wild God and Song of the Lake, Cave paced the stage like a preacher wrestling with his own sermon. Arms flailing, eyes blazing, as four backing singers dressed in extravagantly sequined robes akin to a grandiose gospel choir sang upstage.

O Children introduced the first of many sublime Warren Ellis violin solos. Standing atop a chair, he coaxed strings into screams and angelic whispers. His presence was constant throughout the night. Whether eating an alleged banana or meticulously counting in the songs — ‘one…two…three…four…five…six’ — Ellis was the wide-eyed alchemist vital to cohesive flow, injecting controlled chaos into the night.

Jubilee Street was the calm before the mid-set frenetic storm of the ‘ancient song,’ From Her to Eternity. Despite its age, it fitted seamlessly into the set and was an epic post-punk, sweaty spectacle.

Another pairing from the latest album Wild God (2024) — Long Dark Night and Cinnamon Horses — temporarily brought the tempo down. Then came the thunderous and biblically coded Tupelo. As Cave spat the prophecy of the King, Elvis Presley, you felt the guttural garbling deep within your chest. It was phenomenal.

A ‘new story’ followed with Conversion. This saw more of the call-and-response Cave had going with the audience. Yeh, yeh, yeh! By this stage, he had us eating out of the palm of his hand. So, when he proclaimed, ‘This song is fucking amazing,’ about Bright Horses (it truly is!), we were locked in.

The highly emotive Joy and I Need You softened the edges. They were moments of quiet grace that allowed us to connect with Cave, the Bad Seeds, and each other.

The Cave/ Ellis song Carnage and Final Rescue Attempt both soared. They were tense and compelling, giving the sense that time was being stretched like elastic. When it flung back in the shape of Red Right Hand, it felt like 1994 again with coolness oozing from everywhere.

The intensity only grew with The Mercy Seat and White Elephant in what was an exhilarating end to the main set.

The encore was pure narrative chaos paced to perfection.

The seldom-performed Wide Lovely Eyes was the delicate introduction, while Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry was poetry in motion. The Weeping Song, with its aching harmonies, was the pinnacle of perfection and had everyone mesmerised well into Skeleton Tree. Cave took to the piano for the final song, Into My Arms, encouraging us to sing along. As thousands softly and reverently sang, ‘Into my arms, oh, Lord/ Into my arms,’ Cave smiled, thanked us, and left the stage.

Cave is a storyteller, a poet. He was in full command all night. Theatrical yet genuine, vulnerable while retaining his signature snarl. He laid his soul bare in every song, highlighting an enduring relevance that refuses to fade.

Forty-plus years after forming, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are more talented than ever. Their ability to capture the glory of songs past and elevate them to Wild God tier status while seamlessly juxtaposing them with newer ones is remarkable.

Some gigs just entertain. This one will linger in the recesses of our memories and hearts long after the lights came up.

Live Review By Anita Kertes