Grinderman by Carlos Rossi

Viewing from the bar, the frighteningly disturbing murals of Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch which covered the walls and the sanguine hued lights which engulfed the stage gave one the impression that they were at the gates of Hell rather than at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.  Yet there was no thought of escaping. In the final show of their North American tour, Grinderman reminded Los Angeles how relevant and raw Nick Cave still is.  Throughout his set of strictly Grinderman material, Cave spat out his often dark and sexual lyrics while shifting between a black electric Telecaster, an electric piano, and even an acoustic guitar for one song.  The energy Cave forced upon the crowd caused those in the front to draw their arms toward the stage like lost souls reaching for one last morsel of salvation. And this was no average sized crowd. Grinderman sold out the show months ahead and every inch of dance floor, bar, and balcony was fought for and conquered by those with the deepest fanaticism. Throughout the set, Cave howled and thrusted like the rabid wolf on the cover of Grinderman 2.  Backing him up, Warren Ellis, Martyn P. Casey, and Jim Sclavunos resembled Greenwich Village bearded beatniks (say Ginsberg or the Fugs) and they were rhythmically the tightest backing band I have seen, which makes sense since they have all been with Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds since the mid-90s.  The multi-instrumentalist Ellis was a star of the show, switching between violin, electric guitar, maracas, and two electric Mandocasters (an electric mandolin which resembles a Fender Stratocaster). On one song, he would dance like a mad gypsy while wailing away at the violin, and the next, he would crash his maracas into a high-hat cymbal to provide some auxiliary percussion. On the song “Evil,” off of Grinderman 2, Ellis rolled on the floor and literally did crunches while belting out the chorus line.  The band preformed most of the songs from their two self-titled full-length albums and after an encore they departed the stage to let the damned return to their lives.

—Daniel Clodfelter