STACK #229 November 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward

Robert Ford, and 2009's The Road – and again just after the Opera House reopened. “It was always a bit tricky, particularly playing loud music in there,” Ellis says, “but it's really improved. The thing is, it’s probably one of my favourite structures on the planet.” The Australian Carnage tour shows were always

Australian Carnage: Live at the Sydney Opera House by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is out Dec 1 via Bad Seed Ltd.

going to be affecting for Ellis – "It had been three years since I’d been in Australia, so it was incredibly emotional," he explains – but there's a specific sort of electricity in these tracks. You can hear it, not just in the banter between songs but in the very fabric of the songs themselves, from the wild and thundering White Elephant to the timpani and cymbal builds of Bright Horses , and of course via soul-shredding favourite I Need You. The album siezes these moments alive, wrapped in an audible Cave-and-crowd fellowship which was just as

INTERVIEW

CARNAGE IN REAL TIME

After playing to riveted – and unusually rowdy – audiences at Australia's most superb live venue in 2022, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis listened back to the show recordings and were amazed by the magic they'd managed to capture.We spoke to Ellis about the terrifying and tender Australian Carnage: Live at the Sydney Opera House. Words Zoë Radas

dynamic experienced live as it sounds on record, according to Ellis. "There was something kind of informal about the proceedings," he muses, pawing at his long beard in thought. "We’d be out

There was a lot of interaction going on between us and the audience... a real playfulness

W hen the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds doco One More Time with Feeling landed in 2016, Warren Ellis cut an ethereal figure. Conducting the strings of the band's 16th album Skeleton Tree , he seemed to control the orchestra's soundwaves at their roots, and right from his quivering fists. The indispensable position the multi-instrumentalist held in the Nick Cave clan became clear to many for the first time. Though Ellis and Cave have been collaborating for more than 30 years – via the Bad Seeds since 1994, on two albums as part of the spectacular act Grinderman, and on nearly 20 separate film and theatre soundtracks – the power of the duo reached its so-far peak in 2021's viscerally beautiful Carnage . The following year, Cave and Ellis performed three shows at the Sydney Opera House, joined by Radiohead's Colin Greenwood and regular Bad

Seed Larry Mullins – as well as backing vocalists

there playing, but there was a lot of interaction going on between us and the audience. Even on stage there was a lot of interaction going on. It made the show very unusual; there was a real playfulness. I think, again, it was part of the post-lockdown thing – people were glad to be out and rowdy and stuff – and being back in Australia." But the decision to release the recorded material wasn't a given; Ellis is adamant they'd never fling out a "soulless" album just because they had the audio. "We listened to it, and were really pleasantly surprised that it sounded like we remembered – there was this energy there," he smiles...

Wendi Rose, Janet Ramus, and T Jae Cole – presenting music from Carnage and its predecessor, the untoured Ghosteen (2019). “I guess the Opera House comes loaded with the history – it’s such an iconic place,” Ellis says. “I was a kid when it was being built, so I think for a lot of people it’s a building of note. And it is really beautiful, so that becomes part of the allure, I think. It was plagued historically with sound problems since it was built, and then they did a big refurbishment during the lockdown.” Ellis and Cave played the venue just before the lockdowns – a medley of their film soundtracks, including pieces from 2005's The Proposition, 2007's Oscar-nominated The

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With a producer list that made rap fans' eyes water – including Timbaland, Eminem, Kanye West, Rick Rubin, and Shaun Carter himself – Jay-Z's eighth record The Black Album hit the airwaves this time 20 years ago. Even without the elite all-stars behind the scenes, Carter's dexterous and diverse flow caused delighted whiplash among critics who praised the rapper's ability to mesh classic and modern details into a collection that was quickly considered a defining moment in the hip-hop timeline. Led by irrepressible single 99 Problems, The Black Album became Jay-Z's sixth US number one record, debuting at the top of the Billboard 200 chart.

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Jay-Z in the clip for 99 Problems (2003)

30 NOVEMBER 2023

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