Concert review: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

BRIGHTON, England (CNN) -- "If you could sing along with this one it'd be f******* great. No seriously." So says a jocular Nick Cave as he leads his band the Bad Seeds into an uncharacteristic audience participation for the disturbing song "Oh Mama."

For just as the economic gloom appears to have revived the fortunes of British leader Gordon Brown, so Cave seems to be thriving amid the bad news. Some say the best music is recorded amid hard times, eg. jazz, punk, reggae and hip-hop, and his latest material, which he showcased this week at the Brighton Centre in the eponymous town in southern England, is as good as any he has made to date.

The band tears through songs from their 14th studio album "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" with youthful gusto, mixing it up with older material that is greeted with loud cheers by the capacity crowd. Several are prefaced with reference to the economic crisis: "To continue the theme of devastation, this song is about a guy going to the electric chair," Cave purrs before launching into a fearsome version of "Deanna."

So for 90 minutes he invites us to forget the turmoil without and wallow in it within. Cave puts on a mesmerizing performance in his adoptive home town, emphasizing once again that he is one of the finest front men to emerge from the punk movement.

He stalks the stage constantly, wielding guitars like an offensive weapon here, stabbing manically at an organ there, throwing his notes in the air to the despair of roadies and thrusting his pelvis at the front rows ... dull to watch he certainly is not.

At the age of 51, and with decades of hard living behind him, Cave's voice is nevertheless as strong as ever. The band are loud as only the Bad Seeds can be, but at a stroke can produce the haunting ballads that showcase their fine musicianship and songwriting skill.

The audience gets most of the songs it comes to see: "Red Right Hand," "Nature Boy," "The Weeping Song" and the final crowd-pleaser "Stagger Lee," after which the "beautiful people of Brighton" as he calls us, go home much happier than we were before.