Nick Cave and Warren Ellis returned to their native Australia for 16 shows last year, taking their acclaimed 2021 album Carnage on the road, along with songs from the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds catalogue.
Three performances at the Sydney Opera House on December 16th, 17th and 18th were the climactic shows of an emotional trip, captured for a luminous new live album, Australian Carnage – Live At The Sydney Opera House. The album will be released on digital and streaming services this Friday, August 25th with an 8-track vinyl to follow December 1st on Goliath Records. Today’s announcement is accompanied by the streaming release of “Balcony Man” available to listen to HERE. The album is available to pre-order HERE.
“Touring Australia with Warren after so much time away was one of the highlights of recent years. Every show was moving and unforgettable, from the intimacy of playing in theatres and arts centres, to the vast and uplifting nights at Hanging Rock, through to our final three nights at the inimitable Sydney Opera House. We are excited to share these recordings, made at the Sydney Opera House, and hope they capture even a tenth of the collective elation we felt at those shows. We’ll never forget them.” – Nick Cave
Joined by Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood and regular Bad Seed Larry Mullins, plus backing vocalists Wendi Rose, Janet Ramus and T Jae Cole, Cave and Ellis performed with intensity and humour to a rapt audience. Highlights include a delicate “Bright Horses,” a spiritual “Carnage,” and a visceral “White Elephant,” along with the yearning back-to-back gut punch of “Waiting For You” and “I Need You.”
“Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ Australian Carnage live album is an extraordinary record of two of the most beautiful and brilliant artists of their time reaching for something else with their immensely talented on-stage collaborators. They were more than concerts that Nick & Warren brought to Australia and Sydney Opera House; something profound and numinous was happening in the Concert Hall between the artist and the audience at their performances here, and I hope this album touches you too.” Sydney Opera House Head of Contemporary Music, Ben Marshall
While Ellis is a long-term member of The Bad Seeds, and he and Cave have composed and recorded scores and worked on many other projects together, this was the first time the pair had toured Australia as a duo.
Their creative chemistry is rooted in their long history of music making, both as collaborators and as individual artists. They first crossed paths in 1993, when Ellis played violin on several songs for the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album, Let Love In, before going on to join the band as a full-time member. The two have also recorded as Grinderman, formed in 2006, and have composed and recorded numerous film, TV, and theatre soundtracks together.
Australian Carnage – Nick Cave and Warren Ellis Live at The Sydney Opera House track list:
Digital Album:
1. Spinning Song
2. Bright Horses
3. Night Raid
4. Carnage
5. White Elephant
6. Ghosteen
7. Lavender Fields
8. Waiting For You
9. I Need You
10. Cosmic Dancer
11. Breathless
12. Hand Of God
13. Shattered Ground
14. Galleon Ship
15. Leviathan
16. Balcony Man
17. Hollywood
18. Ghosteen Speaks
Vinyl Album:
Side 1:
1. Bright Horses
2. Carnage
3. White Elephant
4. Leviathan
Side 2:
1. Ghosteen
2. Waiting For You
3. Breathless
4. Balcony Man
This fall, Cave will be embarking on a solo North American tour, kicking off in Asheville September 19. Performing songs from his extensive catalog, Cave will make stops at the beautiful King’s Theatre in Brooklyn, Manhattan’s Beacon Theater and Los Angeles’ iconic Orpheum Theatre on a rare solo tour that includes accompaniment from Colin Greenwood on bass guitar. Full dates below.
Along with the tour, Nick Cave and award-winning journalist Seán O’Hagan’s bestselling book Faith, Hope and Carnage will be released on paperback September 19.
