Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have accompanied me through it all. They’ve guided me, consoled me, and given me an outlet to vent my sadness, anger, longing, and love. I’ve never looked back since that night in 1989 when I first saw them.
Before I could even peel an onion he put me in the basement offices and made me read Italo Calvino, study the art of Caravaggio, and architecture of Borromini and Bernini. He took me to the opera, convinced that before I could learn how to cook the traditional foods of Italy I had to understand the culture from whence they came.
As I was researching restaurants for our weekend in Los Angeles, I found I was as overwhelmed as I was when researching dining options in San Francisco. There seemed to be no shortage of intriguing dining experiences.
Traveling down the west coast to follow Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on tour this summer provided the perfect excuse to try out some of the most noted and notorious restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. After all, a girl's got to eat and I figured I might as well do it up right.
On our first night in Los Angeles we found ourselves standing in a line that wound around the block at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater to pick-up will call tickets for a special screening of the new pseudo-documentary about Nick Cave, 20,000 Days on Earth.
Finally, Nick made his appearance. In a change of clothes and looking refreshed he was corralled into the barricaded area with his fans. He proceeded to take photos and chat for a minute with every single person there. While he was taking photos with another fan, we locked eyes and I got a special "hello."
At 9pm on the dot the pulsating opening bass lines of "We Real Cool" started to rumble from the speakers. The riff lengthened well beyond what you hear on record, rhythmically building up the excitement of the crowd until the band finally appeared on stage in a dramatic haze of blue light.
It’s been one month and I’m just beginning to come down from seeing Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds perform live two nights in a row. A band that gets into my soul like no other, only by being surrounded in the live presence of their music can I begin to understand and appreciate their songs and what the band intended.
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