Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ Way Out West performance was derailed almost immediately as tech troubles plagued the band. Cave and the band had launched into opening song, Get Ready for Love, but were unable to finish it the first time around as microphone problems persisted. In footage of the show shared to Instagram, Cave can be seen throwing two microphones away as he tried to rally the audience through the tech trouble.
On the third microphone failure, Cave can be seen gesturing to the band to stop playing before he bowed to the audience. The song was then restarted according to Setlist.FM users, who confirm Cave and The Bad Seeds managed to play a total of 16 songs for their headline show at Way Out West.
A full setlist for the show can be found below.
- Get Ready for Love
- From Her to Eternity
- Train Long-Suffering
- O Children
- Tupelo
- Carnage
- Joy
- Rings of Saturn
- Henry Lee
- The Mercy Seat
- Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry
- Red Right Hand
- The Weeping Song
- Jubilee Street
- Hollywood
- Into My Arms
Many were sympathetic to Cave and the microphone trouble. The 68-year-old frontman went through three microphones before scrapping the opening song, Get Ready for Love. The song was restarted successfully, but not before Cave was left seemingly furious by the blundered start to the show.
One person wrote: “Should always be a mic and cable set up as a backup. He handled it as best he could. Even gave the techs time by visiting the audience. Should have had that issue dealt with by then.” Another person, who claimed to be a sound engineer, added: “A professional sound engineer will mark the microphones on the bottom with a color or number, making it easy to tell which fader to turn on.
“But the sound engineer in our story doesn’t do that. The singer has every right to be upset, months of planning and practice and performance have been wasted, and I happen to be a sound engineer myself.” A third joked: “Someone’s getting fired, but at least we know that he’s not lip-syncing. That’s a good thing.”
But others suggested Cave lacked a certain professionalism, and that throwing the microphones away before the sound engineers can find the correct channel made it harder for them to find a solution. One person wrote: “Well, I assume as a sound technician you do not keep all spare microphones open at all times.
“So the guy on stage is handed one of the probably 5 microphones that all look exactly alike and you have a tenth of a second to find out which one it is and push the fader up before the dude is throwing it across the stage. Sorry guys but that has nothing to do with professionalism or excellence.”
Another added: “What a lack of respect…. No matter how big a musical star is, that’s not done, and probably those microphones are from the company that provides the audio equipment…. Just to be clear, they were hit and probably damaged…”
But others believe Cave was simply frustrated by being unable to perform the song and that his high standards were on full display. A fan wrote: “People commenting ‘he must be a joy to work with.’ He is demanding excellence guys, people paid to see him perform, not be ‘nice’ to everyone on tech and say it’s ok, thanks for trying. ‘OK’ is average, and Nick ain’t average. He got annoyed, frustrated, not mean. It’s all normal.”
Another added: “Throwing the gear away is definitely going to help.” A third shared: “Should always be a mic and cable set up as a backup. He handled it as best he could. Even gave the techs time by visiting the audience. Should have had that issue dealt with by then.”
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
