The first-2014’s 20,000 Days on Earth, directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard-is a half-fictionalized half-documentary that traces a pseudo-day in Nick’s life, from visiting a psychiatrist to driving around with his beloved and possibly imagined Kylie Minogue. This is seen most vividly in a trinity of documentaries focused on Nick released in the past decade. Though decades have passed since these prior references, Nick still seems to be tangling with that man or myth dilemma. Think of the transition between the roots-inspired homicidal camp of Murder Ballads to the real romance and heartbreak of The Boatman’s Call. There’s a continual push and pull in Nick’s creative output between revealing himself and escaping into fiction or myth. Whether The Birthday Party or The Bad Seeds, Nick wasn’t exactly ever a non-participant in self-mythology, from “Nick the Stripper” to “Junkyard King” to “Black Crow King” to taking on murderous characters like “Stagger Lee” or the tall, thin, and handsome in a certain angle and a certain light mass shooter in “O’Malley’s Bar.” Of course, it’s not all myth-making. The Birthday Party was billed as “the most violent band in the world,” an unwanted moniker that would become its own self-fulfilling prophecy as audience members came ready to bash each other and the band-or just piss on cowboy hat-adorned bassist Tracy Pew.

This question-man or myth?-began early with the local St Kilda popularity of The Boys Next Door, but this mythology would only grow as the band shuffled out of Oz to bleak London, changing their name to The Birthday Party. The other banner under which he performed was Nick Cave, Man or Myth?, a name that feels wholly appropriate for a musician, writer, and recent devil ceramicist that has always precariously balanced between these two poles. There was Nick Cave and the Cavemen, which is funny but not very imaginative.

In the nebulous period of 19 between the drug-fueled dissolution of the trash can-driving, six-inch-gold-blade-slicing, zoo-music-girl-lusting, junkyard royalty The Birthday Party and the official designation of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave played a smattering of clubs under a few different titles. Installation view of Nick Cave’s office, created in collaboration with Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, from Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition (all photos by moi)

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