Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds returned to Manchester with a bang on Tuesday evening as they brought their Wild God tour to the AO Arena. 

The rock musician, 67, looked to be giving it his all as he took to his stage in his signature dapper suit to perform a mixture of both new and original material. 

Returning to the stage, Nick’s latest album, which he first began writing on New Year’s Day in 2023, allowed the star to channel the grief he suffered in the wake of losing two of his sons.

In 2015, Nick’s son Arthur, 15, died after taking LSD for the first time, before falling almost 20 metres from a cliff near his home in Brighton, England.

Seven years later, in 2022, Nick’s son Jethro, 31, who had schizophrenia and battled drug addiction, died in Melbourne two days after he was released from jail. 

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds are deemed ‘nothing short of amazing’ after a sensational show in Manchester as part of the Wild God Tour

Returning to the stage, Nick’s latest album, which he first began writing on New Year’s Day in 2023, allowed the star to channel the grief he suffered in the wake of losing two of his sons

Putting the emotion into his performance, reviews deemed the band’s performance as ‘nothing short of amazing’ as they commented ‘it’s hard not to be astonished by his performance’. 

Manchester Evening News wrote: ‘Finding solace through his grief, he’s become a high priest of redemption. 

‘Each time he reached into the crowd, hundreds of hands reached back, both grasping – whether it’s for the sublime or oblivion – at the empty space between one another.’

Meanwhile Soundsphere penned: ‘Now if you’ve never seen Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds you have to – it’s not just a concert it’s an experience. 

‘Like an eccentric suit clad preacher, Cave has you in the palm of his hand and what he gives you is nothing short of amazing.’

Elsewhere The Yorkshire Times described it as ‘one of the most astonishing, revelatory gigs you could ever wish to see.’

They wrote: ‘I am spellbound by the mesmeric presence and realise that I’m witnessing something special, that this is simply as good as live music gets.’ 

Fans have gone wild for Nick’s recent Europe and UK tour as they took to Instagram after he posted recent snaps from the shows. 

In 2015, his son Arthur, 15, died after taking LSD for the first time and ‘freaking out’ before falling 60ft from a cliff near his home in Brighton (Pictured are Nick with his twin sons Arthur [right] and Earl [left])

Another of the popstar’s sons, Jethro, died in Australia in May 2022 just days after being released from jail (Nick and Jethro pictured in 2017)

The rock musician, 67, looked to be giving it his all as he took to his stage in his signature dapper suit to perform a mixture of both new and original material

Reviews deemed the band’s performance as ‘nothing short of amazing’ as they commented ‘it’s hard not to be astonished by his performance’

The fans went wild for the star as they crowded the stage at the AO arena 

They wrote: ‘Whooh. Manchester was a building shaker of a show. Fantastic’; ‘Great show Nick!!’; 

‘Astoundingly moving & joyous concert in Leeds! We all were wrapped in the swirling rapture of their brilliant dark gospel! Thank you thank you Nick and the Seeds’;

‘Obscenely good. A complete treasure of a band.’; ‘It was truly amazing’; ‘Such an amazing show, Biblical’; ‘Exceptional night with Nick cave and the bad seeds AMAZING’. 

At the time of its release the album Wild God was praised by critics, who lauded the ‘deeply human’ record as a ‘gospel rock riot’ and ‘a ferocious celebration of love’. 

Lyrics on the album offer insight into the pain Nick has suffered from his losses, as he sings in Song Of The Lake: ‘Cause all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. Couldn’t put us back together again.’

He also alludes to being visited by the spirit of his late son, singing in the song Joy: ‘A ghost in giant sneakers, laughing, stars around his head … a flaming boy.’

Singing about the physical impacts of his beliefs, he added in the album’s titular song: ‘Oh Lord, well, if you’re feeling lonely and if you’re feeling blue; And if you just don’t know what to do; Bring your spirit down.’

And: ‘We’ve all had too much sorrow / Now is the time for joy.’ 

Nick also reflects on his grief in the song Long Dark Night, opening with the words: ‘I was long inside a dream, I could not get loose.’ 

Fans have gone wild for Nick’s recent Europe and UK tour as they took to Instagram after he posted recent snaps from the shows

Elsewhere The Yorkshire Times described it as ‘ one of the most astonishing, revelatory gigs you could ever wish to see’

Speaking about the the record at an album playback in August, Nick said: ‘I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me’

He added: ‘It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious’  

Speaking about the the record at an album playback at London’s King’s Hall in August, Nick said: ‘I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me. It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it. 

‘It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious.’

The album, which his first with The Bad Seeds since 2019, has also been praised by critics with a string of positive reviews.

Writing a gushing a five-star review, The Guardian branded the album a ‘masterpiece,’ before adding: ‘Packed with remarkable songs, its mood of what you might call radical optimism is potent and contagious. 

‘You leave it feeling better than you did previously: an improving experience, in the best sense of the phrase.’

The Independent said that ‘the album that will have you believing in the transformative power of love,’ while The Sunday Times described it as ‘a gospel rock riot, The Bad Seeds at their most raucous in 20 years.’

NME awarded the album four stars, and said: ‘With a lust for life, the once-dark prince is letting the light in.’

Nick spoke about religion at the playback and said: ‘My religious nature is not predicated on belief or not having belief really. 

‘There’s something I get from it affects me in a way that I don’t get anywhere else. It’s a place I can take certain feelings that I can’t take elsewhere.

‘I don’t like self-help groups. Whether I believe, is a secondary thing.’ 

Nick previously spoke about the album in an interview with The Sunday Times, and told the publication that the prospect of an afterlife was at the forefront of his mind while writing the record, especially in the wake of his son’s deaths.

‘I’m very uncertain about what happens after you die, but it concerned me how the spirit of Arthur would feel if he saw the misery his mother and father were going through — because of his passing. It was the anniversary of his death yesterday…’ 

‘And one thing we can say to him now is that things are OK. I say that cautiously. There’s no closure. Things haven’t settled back to the place they were, before Arthur or Jethro died. However, we are happy.’

The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds star, known for hits such as Into My Arms and One More Time With Feeling, moved to Los Angeles soon after Arthur died with his wife Susie and Arthur’s twin Earl because they were ‘triggered too much’ by living just down the road from where it happened. 

The tragedy was widely reported and Nick said previously that this resulted in him being ‘forced to grieve publicly’. 

Nick alludes to being visited by the spirit of his late son on the album, singing in the track Joy: ‘A ghost in giant sneakers, laughing, stars around his head … a flaming boy’ 

Speaking on his blog The Red Hand Files, where Nick answers questions from fans, in June, he replied to a woman whose daughter was killed.

He wrote: ‘A parent should never have to bury their child, it makes no sense, it sits outside the natural order of things.

‘Yet here we are, you and me, living within these ghastly vacuums left behind by those we have lost.

‘I love your honesty in laying bare the biblical-sized fury we sometimes feel toward a world that has the audacity to keep on turning, regardless of our suffering. 

‘How dare the world be so beautiful, we think. These are the divergent feelings of grief.’