Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds pay tribute to The Cure at their Way Out West show. Warren Ellis: “Again and again”

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds were unexpected spectators of The Cure at the Way Out West Festival in Gothenburg. Both bands were on the bill on Friday, August 14: Cave and co. played for roughly two hours on the Azalea stage, shortly before Robert Smith and his bandmates closed out the night as headliners on the Flamingo Stage with a lengthy set spanning the various phases of their career.
Once their own set was over, rather than leaving the festival, the Bad Seeds joined the crowd to watch The Cure's performance. The evening was documented by Warren Ellis, who shared a series of photos and videos on Instagram showing members of the band and crew enjoying the show, dancing and clearly thrilled.

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A post shared by Warren Ellis (@thewarrenellis)

"Watching The Cure last night", Ellis wrote. "Band and crew. What a band. What songs. Smithy, you're the best. First saw them in 1984. And I'll see them again and again and again and again" (quoting their famous song "A Forest", ed.).
A particularly meaningful tribute, considering Ellis's first encounter with The Cure's live music thus dates back more than forty years. The Australian musician made no secret of his admiration for Robert Smith and his bandmates, turning the Way Out West backstage into a small celebration among colleagues and fans alike.

The images shared by Ellis captured a curious reversal of roles: just a few hours earlier, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds had been the ones performing in front of the festival crowd; soon after, they found themselves on the other side of the stage, simply having fun and dancing along to The Cure's songs.

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A post shared by gulsah guray (@gulsah_guray)

Cave had already spoken about his affection for The Cure back in June, answering a fan's question on his blog "The Red Hand Files" about "the worst thing about becoming a really old rock star". The musician recalled meeting an elderly couple in Odense, Denmark, both wearing matching Cure t-shirts. The two had asked him for a selfie, but struggled a bit with their phone. "The worst thing about being an old rock star is that the old fans of the old rock star don't know how the fuck their phones work", he wrote. "The couple just stand there, uselessly tapping at the screens, trying to switch them to selfie mode or whatever it is, saying: 'I'm not good with phones', 'How does this thing work?', 'Oh my God' and 'I can't believe it's Nick Cave'. I try to help them, but I don't know how to use their phones either". After seeing himself in the photo they'd finally managed to take, Cave concluded that "the only real difference between me and these old folks with dentures smiling next to me for the camera is that I dye my hair black". "I'm walking back to the hotel to write to you, Daffo", he concluded. "I'm putting on The Cure".
Cave had also spoken about his relationship with goth culture in an interview given to "NME" in 2023. "I think goths, in a way, have stood the test of time", he explained. "When we were young it was the bane of our existence: being called a 'goth band'. It was the last thing you wanted to hear, because we simply weren't one. We were a comedy act! But I feel a strange romantic fascination for all of that, and for their ability to endure".

The Cure's current run of festival dates follows the 2024 release of "Songs Of A Lost World", their comeback album and first studio record in 16 years. The album earned the band their first-ever Grammy wins. Robert Smith later revealed that its follow-up is already complete, while another, more "pop"-leaning record is also in the works.
The Cure will also play Wythenshawe Park in Manchester on Friday, August 21, before performing at the Edinburgh Summer Sessions on Sunday, August 23.
Meanwhile, last week Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds played to almost 50,000 people at Preston Park in Brighton, in what was described as "the biggest ticketed event in Brighton's history". Kylie Minogue also joined the band onstage for "Where The Wild Roses Grow", while earlier that same day Cave and co. had played a surprise show on the rooftop of Resident Records. The Bad Seeds' tour will wrap up in Paris at the end of the month. Cave has also hinted that the band is "doing some experimenting" in the studio, with "the vague idea of maybe making a new record".

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