Nick Cave will return to American stages in the spring with Conversations With Nick Cave, a solo format in which he takes questions from the audience and performs songs accompanied only by his own piano. The singer-songwriter announced the dates after an eight-year gap since he first brought the question-and-answer shows to the United States.
Cave described the original run as an unusual and somewhat urgent experiment. He recalled traveling across the U.S. in what he called a peculiar state of mind, stepping onto stages in different cities and inviting audience members to ask him anything. Those nights, he said, turned out to be deeply restorative for him, and he expressed hope that listeners felt something similar.
In the years since, Cave’s Red Hand Files newsletter has become a central outlet for his written exchanges with fans, and he suggested that its growth and the widening range of subjects it covers make this an appropriate moment to bring the live conversation format back. He also acknowledged that the country he will visit differs from the one he toured in 2018.
What the Shows Involve
The performances combine unscripted audience interaction with music. Cave will have his piano onstage, play a selection of songs, and respond to questions from the crowd. The format echoes his earlier Conversations tours, which mixed spontaneous discussion with stripped-down solo performances.
During the first U.S. Conversations dates in 2018, the open question format led Cave to address a range of topics. He said he had no objection to audience members taking cell-phone photos of him. He also expressed openness to reuniting with former Bad Seed Blixa Bargeld, though that reunion has not taken place. Meeting Johnny Cash, Cave told one audience, had been a revelation.
He also spoke about how talking with audiences had helped him process grief following the death of his son, describing the exchanges as extraordinarily healing.
Ticket Details
Tickets for the general public go on sale at 10 a.m. local time on Nov. 13. Presales begin on Wednesday. Complete information is available on a dedicated website for the tour.
Cave’s announcement arrives as he continues to maintain a direct line with his audience through both the Red Hand Files and the stage. The spring run will test whether the question-and-answer format, which he first developed in 2018, retains its capacity to surprise both performer and crowd.
