Nick Cave has shared a trailer for his forthcoming concert film, Idiot Prayer.
Filmed last month at London’s Alexandra Palace, the streaming event will feature Cave performing solo with a piano, while the setlist will feature music from across his career and numerous projects. You can watch the trailer above.
"Idiot Prayer evolved from my Conversations With… events, performed over the last year or so," Cave says. "I loved playing deconstructed versions of my songs at these shows, distilling them to their essential forms — with an emphasis on the delivery of the words. I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, and started to think about going into a studio and recording these reimagined versions at some stage — whenever I could find the time."
He adds that the introduction of COVID-19 lockdowns across much of the world forced the cancellation of his 2020 world tour with the Bad Seeds, forcing the world "into an eerie, self reflective silence," which led him to think further about not only recording these reimagined versions of his songs, but also filming them.
"Meanwhile, I sat at home working out how to play more songs in the Conversations format — new songs and songs from the Ghosteen album, Grinderman songs and early Bad Seeds stuff, and everything in between.
"We worked with the team at Alexandra Palace — a venue I have played and love — on securing a date to film just as soon as they were allowed to re-open the building to us. We had an amazing production team and crew, and what they did within this extraordinary situation was a marvel. Surrounded by COVID officers with tape measures and thermometers, masked-up gaffers and camera operators, nervous-looking technicians and buckets of hand gel, together we created something very strange and very beautiful that spoke into this uncertain moment, but was in no way bowed by it.
"Idiot Prayer serves as the final film in a trilogy — along with 20,000 Days On Earth and One More Time With Feeling — and is its luminous and heartfelt climax. Idiot Prayer is a prayer into the void — alone at Alexander Palace. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it."
Idiot Prayer will premiere on July 23, 2020. It will be shown across three time periods, covering the UK and Europe, Australia, and North and South America. Tickets and more information can be found here.
