Nick Cave Announces Solo Piano Concert Livestream, Shares Trailer: Watch

Lake Schatz
·4 min read

The post Nick Cave Announces Solo Piano Concert Livestream, Shares Trailer: Watch appeared first on Consequence of Sound.

Nick Cave was recently forced to cancel the remainder of his 2020 tour dates, but he’s making it up today with the announcement of a special solo piano concert.

Originally filmed last month in London, Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace will be presented as an exclusive livestreamed ticketed event on July 23rd. The virtual performance promises over 20 songs from throughout Cave’s expansive career, including his most recent album Ghosteen and his work with both The Bad Seeds and Grinderman.

The performance was filmed by award-winning cinematographer Robbie Ryan (The Favourite, Marriage Story, American Honey) in Alexandra Palace’s West Hall. It was edited by Nick Emerson (Lady Macbeth, Emma, Greta).

Idiot Prayer will officially air July 23rd beginning at 10 p.m. ET in North America and South America, 8 p.m. UK time in Europe, and 8 p.m. AEST throughout Asia and Australia. According to a statement, the piano concert will be a one-off event and rolled out just like an actual live show — with no option to pause or rewind during or after its broadcast. For more information and ticket details, head to Cave’s official website.

Below, watch a newly revealed trailer for the film along with a note from Cave detailing the performance and what he hopes to accomplish.

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The Australian goth-rock icon recently contributed to a new tribute album honoring Marc Bolan and T-Rex. He also sold a pair of his own socks for charity. Earlier this month, Cave explained why he’ll never write a political song.

“Idiot Prayer’ evolved from my ‘Conversations With…’ events, performed over the last year or so. I loved playing deconstructed versions of my songs at these shows, distilling them to their essential forms—with an emphasis on the delivery of the words. I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, and started to think about going into a studio and recording these reimagined versions at some stage—whenever I could find the time.

Then, of course, the world went into lockdown. The Bad Seeds’ global 2020 tour was postponed. Studios shut down. Venues shut down. And the world fell into an eerie, self-reflective silence.

It was within this silence that I began to think about the idea of not only recording the songs, but also filming them – and so we started to assemble a small team, including the great cinematographer, Robbie Ryan, sound man, Dom Monks, and editor, Nick Emerson, with the intention to film as soon as it became feasible to get back to business in some way.

Meanwhile, I sat at home working out how to play more songs in the ‘Conversations’ format—new songs and songs from the Ghosteen album, Grinderman songs and early Bad Seeds stuff, and everything in between.

We worked with the team at Alexandra Palace – a venue I have played and love – on securing a date to film just as soon as they were allowed to re-open the building to us. We had an amazing production team and crew, and what they did within this extraordinary situation was a marvel. Surrounded by Covid officers with tape measures and thermometers, masked-up gaffers and camera operators, nervous looking technicians and buckets of hand gel, together we created something very strange and very beautiful that spoke into this uncertain moment, but was in no way bowed by it.

‘Idiot Prayer’ serves as the final film in a trilogy— along with ’20,000 Days on Earth’ and ‘One More Time with Feeling’—and is its luminous and heartfelt climax. ‘Idiot Prayer’ is a prayer into the void—alone at Alexander Palace. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.”

Nick Cave

Nick Cave Announces Solo Piano Concert Livestream, Shares Trailer: Watch
Lake Schatz

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