Watch Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds play ‘Hollywood’ live for the first time at Cruel World 2025

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds played ‘Hollywood’ for the first time ever at Cruel World 2025 this weekend – watch footage below.

The band topped the bill at Brookside Park in Pasadena, California on Saturday night (May 17) and in a career-spanning set, they gave a debut live hearing to ‘Hollywood’, the sprawling 14-minute closing track on 2019 album ‘Ghosteen’.

“This is for LA,” Cave said to introduce the song, the lyrics for which the band projected on the screen behind them. Check out fan-captured footage of the meditative, spiritual performance of the track here:

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds played:

‘Frogs’
‘Wild God’
‘Tupelo’
‘Jubilee Street’
‘Joy’
‘Red Right Hand’
‘From Her To Eternity’
‘The Weeping Song’
‘Hollywood’

‘Hollywood’ references the Buddhist tale of Kisa Gotami, an enlightened character who seeks help from the Buddha after the death of her child and discovers that “no one is untouched by loss”. Cave wrote it, and the rest of ‘Ghosteen’, in the aftermath of the death of his son Arthur in 2015.

Although this was the first time it has made a Bad Seeds setlist, it was a regular presence on Cave and Warren Ellis’ ‘Carnage’ tour in 2021.

The Cruel World performance came at the end of The Bad Seeds’ first North American tour in seven years, which have also seen the band’s first live renditions of ‘Skeleton Tree’ in seven years, as well as tracks from their acclaimed 2024 album ‘Wild God’.

Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood is playing with Nick Cave and co. at the shows, after it was announced last year that Martyn Casey wouldn’t be able to join due to illness. Greenwood had previously played with Cave live on his recent solo tours, as well as several dates of the ‘Carnage’ tour. Greenwood also contributed parts to ‘Wild God’, too.

Before the release of ‘Wild God’ and subsequent live shows, Cave spoke to NME about his outlook on life, and opened up about how he thinks social media contributes towards the pessimistic outlook of younger generations.

“I think social media is a huge problem and is having a huge demoralising effect on society. Young people are losing faith in the world in general and what the world has to offer them. That’s a major problem,” he said. Check out the full interview here.

Cave has also been writing recently about how his “love” for his live audience is “entirely true” and “profoundly intimate”, while also expanding on why he believes ‘Into My Arms’ is so impactful.

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