ROLLING STONE: At the end of February, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds took the stage at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the release of their latest album Push the Sky Away. Backed by an ensemble of string players and a children’s choir from the Silverlake Conservatory, the band re-created the entire LP onstage. Now you can take an exclusive first look at their performance of “Mermaids,” the album’s upcoming single. Directed by U.K. artists Lain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and filmed by LoveLive, the black-and-white clip periodically cuts to a washed out filter as Cave ambles about the stage, delivering the somber song in his dark croon, which the the choir fleshes out in gorgeous bloom. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: If you heard a distant rumble or saw a flash of light on the Northwest horizon last night around 9 p.m., that was Nick Cave, like a bat out of hell, smiting Glenside to a crisp as per his satanic majesty’s request. And it was good. Very good. How could it not be? Everyone knows Heaven has better weather but Hell has all the best bands. Cave looked and sounded in peak form (good hair, great suit, whipped himself about the stage like an electrocuted Elvis), and his voice contained multitudes. Deep, dulcet, and strong like bull. Part angel-headed hipster, part Pentecostal preacherman, part medicine show barker, part lounge singer lothario. All pomade and sweat and jive and Old Testament gravitas. MORE