LIVE: NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS with ALDOUS HARDING – Fremantle, 17 Jan 2026

LIVE: NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS with ALDOUS HARDING – Fremantle, 17 Jan 2026
Fremantle Park, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Linda Dunjey

Hailing originally from New Zealand, Hannah Harding (known professionally as Aldous Harding) and her two offsiders deliver a set of folky pop which is delicate and fragile, their vocals taking the spotlight over sparse piano, guitar & sax backing. It’s quite lovely despite the lack of respect shown by some pockets of the crowd who think we should listen to their shrill chatter rather than the music.

There’s an almost Velvet Underground and (dare I say it) PJ Harvey edge to Harding’s vocals and rhythms at times, and a baroque pop feel underpinning it all. She’s definitely one for a mellow Sunday morning coming down.

From the moment he takes the unseasonally near-chilly Fremantle Park stage Nick Cave is a dark, profane preacher of love, euphoria and sadness.

Throughout, The Bad Seeds – currently The Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis on violin, guitar, keys and vocals; Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood on bass and guitar; Larry Mullins on the drums; percussionist Jim Sclavunos and keyboardist Carly Paradis, plus a mini-choir of four backing vocalists – provide stunning musicality while Cave intones fire and brimstone one minute, love and devotion the next.

That Nick Cave has something of the fervent Old Testament preacher about him shouldn’t come as much of a surprise after a near-fifty-year career delivering iconic rock n’ roll sermons, but his sheer joie de vivre and sense of humour was unexpected. Given his turbulent younger years and tragic recent family losses it seems he has not only found a way to express his sadness but also find some joy in life again.

Dressed in a sombre black suit like a funeral director, when someone calls out that he “looks fantastic” he chuckles and replies, “I look like… a Mormon.” He introduces the exultant O Children as “ancient – mid-period Nick Cave, coming to you in a zimmer frame.” When charismatic scene-stealer and musical lynchpin Ellis throws exaggerated kisses to the crowd and exhorts, “My people!” Cave shakes his head, amusedly grumbling “milking it!”

And if he is our preacher for the night, he’s an animated one – rarely standing still, often throwing shapes as if receiving shocks of religious ecstasy from above, prowling the runway in front of the stage and laying hands upon his ‘congregation’.

Recent album Wild God is featured heavily alongside a handful of old favourites, and amongst both the old and new tracks were moments which were truly special.

A feisty and physical From Her To Eternity shows that although modern Cave may be somewhat refined and dignified, that nihilistic punk vitriol is still intact and simmering away inside. Long Dark Night and Cinnamon Horses – both from Wild God – are beautiful and calmer, before Tupelo – about a cataclysmic storm on the night Elvis Presley was born – is suitably apocalyptic and primal.

Talking of Joy, the Wild God track of that name is not only an exhortation to seek happiness, but with the lyrics “And all across the world they shout out their angry words, about the end of love… we’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy” it is both jaded and hopeful, and there are few more apt sentiments for early 2026.

The dark intensity of Red Right Hand is slightly diminished as Cave endearingly struggles to remember some of the words in an early verse; whilst The Mercy Seat – “an exercise in how great musicians can interpret two solitary chords” is amazing and practically evangelical in its fervour. By the time an entrancing White Elephant had closed out the primary set the band had been riveting our attention for exactly two hours, but they weren’t done yet, not by far.

After a five-minute break they return with a unique treat, “just for Fremantle and Perth”. As he was leaving England, Cave explains, his wife Susie told him to play Wide Lovely Eyes. “But we don’t play that one,” he replied (not since 2013, apparently). “You have to play it – it’s about me,” was the reply, and suffice to say, it was lovely.

Papa Won’t Leave You Henry had a galloping, intense, gospel-Western feel; The Weeping Song a hypnotic trance-like dirge; Skeleton Tree a song of deep sadness which he admits he didn’t play for a long time until reconciling himself with it more recently.

The band leaves the stage, allowing Cave to deliver In Your Arms, a song of such gentle, sacred beauty that it stunned seemingly everyone present. Partners enveloped their loved ones in their arms, tears welled in eyes, and the chorus was sung by practically everyone present, accompanied only by a tender piano, Cave conducting the Fremantle Park choir. It was a truly special moment to end an amazing, intense show which reinforced the sheer power and beauty of music as art.

Setlist:
Frogs
Wild God
Song of the Lake
O Children
Jubilee Street
From Her to Eternity
Long Dark Night
Cinnamon Horses
Tupelo
Conversion
Bright Horses
Joy
I Need You
Carnage
Final Rescue Attempt
Red Right Hand
The Mercy Seat
White Elephant

Wide Lovely Eyes
Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry
The Weeping Song
Skeleton Tree
Into My Arms

 

 

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries