The Australia and New Zealand tour will be Cave’s first live shows since the death of his teenage son, and the release of his acclaimed album and documentary

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds will bring their acclaimed new album, Skeleton Tree, to Australia and New Zealand in January, the first live dates announced by Cave since the death of his teenage son last year.

The album, which debuted at #1 on the Aria charts in Australia, was given a five-star review by the Guardian when it was released last month, and described as “a masterpiece of love and devastation”.

Skeleton Tree was released alongside a documentary by New Zealand-born director Andrew Dominik, One More Time With Feeling. The film covers the Australian musician’s trauma and grief after his 15-year-old son Arthur fell from a cliff in Brighton to his death, in July 2015, while Cave was recording the album, which is the band’s 16th.

Nick Cave: One More Time With Feeling, Skeleton Tree and the power and language of grief Read more

“What happens when an event occurs that is so catastrophic you just change,” Cave said in the film. “You change from the known person, to an unknown person. So that when you look at yourself in the mirror, do you recognise the person that you were but the person inside the skin is a different person.”

At a Venice film festival screening, Dominik explained that the documentary came about because Cave needed a way to promote the album which didn’t involve speaking to the press about his son.

“Arthur had died halfway through making [the album],” he said. “And the idea of [promoting] it made him feel sick, because he was going to have to discuss the context of the record with a whole bunch of journalists. That prospect was very alarming to him.

“His instinct in making the film was one of self-preservation: it was a way to talk about what happened, but there was a certain safety in doing it with someone he knew.”

The film also tracks the creative and personal relationship between Cave and his long-time songwriting partner, Warren Ellis, who will join the tour alongside Bad Seeds members Martyn Casey, Thomas Wydler, Jim Sclavunos, Conway Savage, George Vjestica and Larry Mullins.



Opening in Hobart, Tasmania, on 13 January, the tour’s first mainland Australia show will be outdoors at the North Gardens in Ballarat, Victoria, supported by the experimental trio the Necks. The Necks will also join the shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Tour dates outside Australia have not yet been announced.