Can You Gig It?: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds @ Hammersmith Apollo, London, 7.5.08

nick cave Can You Gig It?: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds @ Hammersmith Apollo, London, 7.5.08
Susi Weaser, editor of Shiny Shiny, went to check out cheery old moustached lizard Nick Cave the other night. I wonder, was he as good as the number of times his album’s been played in our office would suggest? Let’s find out.
How did you rate the venue?
Um, can I just copy and paste what I wrote when I saw Gogol Bordello? OK, so this is what I think/thought: I quite like the Hammersmith Apollo. I’ve never had a bad night there. It’s sloped towards the stage so it’s easy to get a good view, and it’s not so big you lose any atmosphere.
What were the crowd like?
Less gothic-looking than I expected. I suppose everyone has grown up. It was mostly an older crowd, a side effect of which is that they were also a very tall crowd.

Was the support act any good or did it send you to the bar?
We didn’t see him. He was an ex-Bad Seeds member, but the prospect of a beer garden in the sun was too good to resist.
Bar - rip-off or value for money?
Carling venue prices - about 8 quid for a pint and two double vodkas and lemonades. I’ve seen worse.
Venue staff - nice or nasty?
Brilliantly not up to their jobs. We had tickets for standing above the circle at the top and by covering a crucial part of the ticket when we walked in, we got to the floor. Having said that, we then couldn’t get back out to go to the non-beer bar, but ’twas a small price to pay.
Toilets - swilling with piss, or spick and span?
They were fine. I remember toilet paper, and sinks, and no queues. Couldn’t ask for more, really.
Highlight / lowlight of show?
The highlight was when Nick Cave forgot the words to one of his five minute liturgies. And when he called the audience a bunch of cunts for slow-clapping a technical difficulty (to be fair, it was a pretty cunty thing to do). And when he took off his suit jacket to reveal he was wearing one of his own band t-shirts. And the first time I got to see That Moustache IRL (that’s “in real life”, non-nerds - Ed). There was so much…
Lowlight was the tall people. And my shoes were hurting me a bit.
Any other comments?
I really do think they should make Hammersmith a bit nearer.