A little over 100 people sprawled around the bank of a tranquil pond in the middle of the Liss Ard woods in Co Cork yesterday afternoon as Nick Cave joined long-time acquaintances Warren Ellis, Conway Savage and Mick Harvey for a short but blissfully sweet set.
Cave, in fine and cheerful form, used the setting to premiere a song he wrote at Liss Ard during a recent visit. A soft and plaintive effort, he apologised for its "corny" content. "I do get quite corny here in Liss Ard", he said. "It does that to a man." In fact, he had earlier been moved to recite a poem, the darkly religious imagery of which jarred pleasingly with the picture-postcard surroundings.
Harvey, Ellis and Savage used guitar, violin and piano to colour the proceedings in a moody wash of wistful downtempo tones. Savage offered a particularly fine take on Sweet and Tender Ladies, Cave having joined the audience to soak up the almost criminally pastoral ambience.
He was eventually goaded into a return to the small waterside stage and obliged with the crowd-pleasing Into My Arms. Horror of horrors, he even encouraged a little audience participation.
The previous night, Cave had joined Patrick McCabe for a sort of literary cabaret. The writer read from The Butcher Boy and other works while the Australian troubadour rendered fiercely intense versions of West Country Girl and the crazed Dead Joe.
Stormy weather is forecast for Liss Ard over the weekend, but rain somehow seems unlikely to stop play.