Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds at Barclays Center
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds at Barclays Center (more by Ester Segretto)

Nick Cave covered Daniel Johnston's "Devil Town" (watch)

Nick Cave just kicked off the North American leg of his “Conversations With” Q&A Tour with one night in Washington DC and two in NYC. In addition to answering questions from the audience, Nick has been performing songs at the shows, solo on piano and even acapella. As Variety reports:

He began by taking the stage at almost exactly 8 p.m. and performing his lovely 1990 ballad “The Ship Song,” and then explained the show’s format. He said he’d first tried it in New York last year “and it seemed to kinda work, in some f—ed-up way” and then spoke of his interaction with fans on his Red Right Hand newsletter. “It’s been really important for my own self-survival mechanism, and it’s an incredibly moving thing for me. I feel like I have access to the needs of my audience, and it’s terrifying — but beautiful too.” Throughout the night, he’d often conclude his answer to a question about a song by saying, “Would you like me to play it?” Although he declined to air any songs from his just announced new album, due next week, he did play “God Is in the House,” “Into My Arms,” “Jubilee,” “Girl in Amber,” “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry” and many others solo favorites. He even dipped way back into his history with a tribute to his late former Birthday Party/Boys Next Door bandmate Roland S. Howard, who he said “changed everything” for the band when he joined, and then he played Howard’s song “Shivers.”

He played two other covers as well. When an audience member if he’d been a fan of the influential singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston, who passed away last week after many years of struggles with mental illness, Cave said he’d been a big fan and sang some of Johnston’s “Devil Town” a capella. And he spoke of the vast influence of artists like John Lee Hooker, Leonard Cohen (whose “Avalanche” he performed) and Johnny Cash, who covered Cave’s harrowing song “The Mercy Seat,” which is told from the perspective of a man about to be executed.

Nick sang part of “Devil Town” at his DC show as well, and you can watch fan-taken video footage of it from NYC and DC below.

As mentioned, Nick’s new double album Ghosteen is out next week.

The National also recently covered “Devil Town” in tribute to Daniel Johnston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsy4KfmCwfA
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2xz4yPgZ1s/

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