20,000 Days on Earth

20,000 Days on Earth

A portrait of one of the most accomplished figures to emerge from the New Wave of music which broke with the British rock phenomenon popularly called Punk Rock. The Bad Seeds managed to transcend the shock-wave excesses of drug abuse and on-stage antics to mature into a serious outfit internationally on a musical and poetical level. Maintaining their integrity, honesty and ever increasing body of work over this period Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are the stuff of legend. I recall when they played a gig at the Trade Union Club in Sydney while I was living at Pyrmont Squats, I didn’t go because of the legions of acolytes who were more concerned, so it seemed, with scoring an obligatory taste than they were in experiencing a most unique act. It was the same when they played in Brisbane in the 90’s and I was working at Zed; the gal had to have a Neubaten tattoo and a taste to interview Blixa but didn’t think to ask him the meaning behind the symbol. No wonder Nick was touring with a Narcotics Anonymous minder to keep away the riff-raff or at least the associated temptation.

The movie is a very credible piece of work in itself, virtually devoid of extraneous nonsense and sycophancy it shows the characters with a refreshing honesty and intellectual rigor. Not too long, it is comprehensive tho’ not exhaustive. One of the best music docos to come out of the Australian scene.