Wild God, Bring Your Spirit Down

Nick Cave holds an old school revival meeting and I was revived

I haven’t attended church regularly for 5 years. And there’s a lot I don’t miss. But, Nick Cave reminded me of what I did miss--spiritual revival.  

Wild God was an old school revival meeting and Nick Cave came to preach and heal--complete with choir, altar call, laying on of hands, clapping, call and response, prophetic rants, sing along worship, blessings, and a final benediction. Wild God was a sonic impaling, sonic baptism, sonic burial, sonic resurrection, sonic revival. Truly: Wild God was a sonic seduction. I walked out of the theater a late-in-life convert, seduced by Nick’s compassionate celebration of all it means to be a fallen human creature. Through his grief I was slain in the spirit, through his joy I was speaking in tongues, and through the communal audience spirit I was healed by love. 

Nick Cave is a sensual minister of spiritual mortality. He strode across the stage in his dark pastor suit tenderly gathering the energy of the audience in his hands. He was in control, but did not control. More like, he was a physical conduit of a chaotic divine energy. The front row was as much a part of the experience as the 11 piece band. He held hands, blessed heads, sweetly engaged, sardonically chastised, relished endearing heckles, even playfully sucked the neck of one willing fan. Somehow we angels perched up in the loge were as much a part of the energy as the front row altar folks. 

Nick Cave does not perform, he conducts. There is no persona, no ego/alter ego/super ego, as weird as that is to say about any musician. He embodies the full paradox of what it means to be a mortal divine soul: humility and bombast, grief and joy, passion and gentility, tenderness and veracity, rage and silence, humor and melancholy.  As per his lyric “amazed of love, amazed of pain,” Wild God is his gospel--the good news--that the range of pain and joy are the same, but love will sustain. His church is no less than the church of Love. And that’s a church I can attend on the regular.

Nick Cave is in a word a true charismatic.  His presence reminds us of the original meaning of the word charisma: “gift of grace.”  Before charisma became attached to snake oil, personality, and power, it was a quality of beauty, grace, and charm that ancient Greeks used to describe their own wild gods and titans. Dare I say, Nick embodies all the wild qualities of those exalted fallen beings. He is Prometheus, Pan, and Dionysus. His charisma, “favor freely given,” is a gift he generously pours out from the stage to awaken the sleeping and revive the dead. Grateful to have been a corpse roused by his gospel (and the wild wail of Warren Ellis).  

Wild God was not a performance. It was an experience. If I could, I would send everyone I love to the front row of Wild God. It was an experience I long to share, not a memory I want to keep.   

One subversive fan videoed the entire show, despite, or to honor, Nick’s booming: “Put your mother fucking phone away!” His disregard proved him to be a true Nick Cave fan. Enjoy, if you can’t see it live.

LYRICS OF SONIC SEDUCTION
Resonant lyrics of the evening—All sonic seduction, all sonic beauty, all sonic impaling. Also, set list in order of the evening created by Lisa.

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/nick-cave-wild-god/pl.u-JPAZb2NuEkoep8

Sonic Subversion: Song of the Lake

For every evil under the sun

If there be one

Seek it till you find

For there's either a remedy or there is none

Sonic Baptism: Frogs

Amazed of love and amazed of pain

Amazed to be back in the water

Back in the water again

Sonic Impaling: From Her to Eternity

Listen I know it must sound absurd

But I can hear the most melancholy sound I ever heard

Walk and cry, walk and cry

Kneel and cry, kneel and cry

Sonic Burial: Long Dark Night

But things were not so good, I can't make light of it

My poor soul, it was having a dark night of it

It was a long night, a week, maybe a year

Sonic Lullaby: Tupelo

Ya can say these streets are rivers

Ya can call these rivers streets

Ya can tell ya self ya dreaming, buddy

But no sleep runs this deep

Sonic Confession: Joy

I jumped up like a rabbit and fell down to my knees

I called all around me, said, "Have mercy on me, please"

"Have mercy on me, please"

Sonic Seduction: I Need You

I need, I need, I need you

I need you, I need you

Just breathe, just breathe

I need you

Sonic Conversion: Conversion

Oh, you're touched by the spirit, touched by the flame, oh

Oh, touched by the spirit, touched by the flame, oh

(Touch my spirit, touch my spirit, my spirit, touch my spirit)

Sonic Redemption: Final Rescue Attempt

After that nothing ever really hurt again

Nothing ever really hurt, not even ordinary pain

Sonic Resurrection: Wild God

Swim to the hymn, swim to the prayer

And bring your spirit down

I'm a wild god, baby, I'm a wild god

Here we go, yeah, here we go

Sonic Prophecy: Red Right Hand

He'll reach deep into the hole, heal your shrinking soul

But there won't be a single thing that you can do

He's a god, he's a man, he's a ghost, he's a guru

Sonic Revival: Wild God

And the people on the ground cried, "When does it start?"

And the wild god says, "It starts with the heart, with the heart, with the heart, with the heart"

Sonic Epiphany: Joy

Yet the stars stand above the earth

Bright, triumphant metaphors of love

Blind us all who care to stand and look beyond above

The joy, the joy, the joy, the joy, the joy