I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on the Skeleton Tree tour on the first night of tour. This was shortly after Nick’s son had died in a tragic accident where he had fallen off a cliff. It was quite obvious he was deeply grieving but needed to be on stage to begin healing.

It felt like during the first song that the whole audience was keeping him alive and singing with our collective breathing, like the whole room was breathing as one person and holding him aloft with our breath? It’s a bit hard to describe, but like we were holding his hand across a tightrope. Then after a song or two he found a groove and began being the Nick Cave we all know, and began moving like a jaguar across the stage the way he does and doing his Nick Cave things (if you know you know). He didn’t talk much but it was pretty clear it was giving him some of his life back. I’ve seen him three times since, and he’s back to his funny self despite the loss of another son in that time, but I’ve never lost the feeling when I see him that the audience keeps him afloat. It’s pretty special. Also listening to and reading about him talk about grief has helped a lot of people.