Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
2013-11-10
Alsterdorfer Sporthalle
Hamburg

Sound Professionals SP-CMC 8 Cardioid > Sony RH 1 > Hi-MD (PCM mode) > Sonic Stage > wav > Audacity1.3 (level adjustments, trackmarking, some limiter for close applause) > TLH > flac 8

recorded 15 meters from stage, left side, 5 meters up,

TRT: 122:31 min


01. intro
02. We Know Who U R
03. Jubilee Street
04. Do You Love Me?
05. Tupelo
06. Red Right Hand
07. Mermaids
08. From Her to Eternity
09. West Country Girl
10. God Is In the House
11. Watching Alice
12. Into My Arms
13. Higgs Boson Blues
14. The Mercy Seat
15. Stagger Lee
16. Push the Sky Away

- encore -
17. We Real Cool
18. Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry
19. Jack The Ripper
20. Deanna
21. Give Us A Kiss

There's been a time when I was into Nick Cave very much, like going to the store when a new single was out, collecting bootlegs etc.. I haven't bought the last records, but the Grinderman shows rekindled the flame. Kind of strange to see a croud of 5000 in an ugly sports venue - about 100 had left wby the time the generous encore started. Not all with pleased faces, maybe only knowing the records that caused the recent fame they didn't know what they were were in for - a lot of the good old stuff got played, some fierce and brilliant versions, from Stagger Lee to Red Right Hand, 8 min of Tupelo, Eternity - ah, I loved it, a great show (htere are better, more hypnotic renditions of The Mercy Seat though). The new records - listening to the recording I like most of it as well, except maybe Mermaids and the title track which was a bit of a letdown as closer - but tastes are different.

The performance was very intense, Cave spending most of the time right at the front of the stage, leaning out, touching the audience, the band staying physically in the back, compared to the old times more of a backup then a band, except maybe for Warren Ellis.

The mix was excelent, every word clear and understandable, no matter how loud the music got - and loud it was. As the beginning was VERY loud I lowered the recording levels some, thou after adjusting some peaks in the recording I head enough headroom to elevate the whole by 3 dB. Some parts of the quiet songs I enhanced by 0,5 - 1,5.
Changed the md during the encore break, about 1 minute of cheers was lost but no music, mended the gap by a crossfade.

For Shilpa Ray's terrific support I had choosen a seat on the left side, 5 meters up, about 15 meters from the elevated speakers with the intention of going down to the pitch for the Cave set - but the support sounded great from my point of recording and I was a little afraid of what an extatic crowd and a docend beer vendors can do to a recording - so I stayed seated and it was a good choice, hardly any audience chatter (was to loud for chatter most of the time anyway), far away from the shouters, the outatune singalong, the we love you's - the clapping of the people close to me was limited manually.

The setlist is the same as the rest of the tour - a few minor changes - but why change too much, the dramaturgy is perfect. Deanna was added as second to last after requests from the audience.

All in all I'm very pleased how the recording tuned out - and with the show anyway.