10 Greatest Live Rock Albums Since 2010
9. Nick Cave - Idiot Prayer
The Bad Seeds have been a scorching live band for decades, with 1993’s Live Seeds standing as an all-time great concert record. 2020’s Idiot Prayer only added to that mythology. It ditches the fire and brimstone, but achieves something starkly intimate at a tricky time.
A Bad Seeds tour was kyboshed by COVID, but the ever-evolving Cave wouldn’t let this get in the way of performing his new music. Instead of going around the world, he sat at a piano in a deserted Alexandra Palace, and live streamed a career-spanning set of extraordinary power.
The mid-period piano-led tracks obviously come off great. Plenty of stuff from The Boatman’s Call is heard here, with “Into My Arms” beautiful as ever, all the more powerful at a time when such physical connection was verboten. More impressive is the newer material. The songs from latest record Ghosteen are heavily electronic, but the likes of “Galleon Ship” show their beautiful bones in these solo renditions.
The live streamed event was a welcome respite from the boredom of lockdown, but the record still sounds fantastic now. The sparseness of the tracks combined with the cavernous, empty venue is a lovely contrast.