The Single Greatest Live Performance I've Ever Seen

The greatest performance I’ve ever seen, and it’s not even close, is Grinderman performing “Kitchenette” at Coachella on April 12, 2013.

I have easily seen over 1,000 bands since 1995 when I started going to concerts. I have a list of over 250 bands I’ve seen. These are almost exclusively ticketed events, which probably represent about 20% of the shows I’ve seen. Many of them, I’ve seen a LOT.

I’ve seen Bob Dylan multiple times. I’ve seen B.B. King, Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton at the Hollywood Bowl, Elton John and Billy Joel at Wrigley Field, Brian Wilson at UCLA, Ann and Nancy Wilson acoustic, Radiohead at Lollapalooza, Loretta Lynn, The Pretenders, The Stone Roses, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Pearl Jam and U2. I’ve sang with Squirtgun at the Emerson Theater and opened for Robbie Fulks and the Koffin Kats. Played 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley and The Basement in Nashville.

But nothing, no one, touches Nick Cave.

Not in my lifetime.

This show was in one of the tents on Friday night. At the beginning of their set, there were probably a couple hundred people in there. I was able to get within about twenty-feet of the stage (I’m about three feet behind the girl he interacts with in the linked video). By the end of the set, the tent was packed.

I was already a Nick Cave fan, but this was one of those moments that changed my life, at least creatively. He was braver than I was. Still is, but I’m braver than I was because of that night.

The Bad Seeds played the next night on one of the main stages and that was amazing as well, but it wasn’t the greatest venue to see them in. Plus, they were either the last band, or next to last band of the night and I was about a half mile from the stage.

Watch the video, it’s not the greatest quality, being a 2013 flip phone video, but it could’ve been filmed using Charlie Chaplin’s camera, you cannot hide how great this is.