Nick Cave Calls Out Brisbane Council For “Fucking Absurd” Noise Curfew

January 27, 2017

Nick Cave used his rousing performance on Wednesday night at Brisbane’s Riverstage to launch an assault on the local council’s noise restrictions that see a 10pm noise curfew imposed on the venue.

Cave was forced to cut his encore from a planned five songs to just two, reports the Brisbane Times, so as to comply with the curfew, and to say the musician wasn’t impressed would be a tad of an understatement.

“There’s some fucking absurd curfew in this place,” Cave said, following the first song of his encore ‘Mermaids’. “They fine you, he continued. “They fine you per minute. Thousands per minute.” Before Cave and the Bad Seeds left the stage, he implored punters not to sit idly by but to “write to your city council.”

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has since responded to Cave’s comments, voicing his support for the curfew to continue due to “the open-air layout and location” of the venue which “means noise generated by concerts can travel across the river and to nearby suburban areas.”

Quirk was also quick to shift the blame to the state government for failing to approve the building of a proposed new 17,000 seat arena. “The state government are currently sitting on a $2 billion market-led proposal, which would revitalise one of the most underutilised areas of Brisbane’s CBD,” said Quirk. “With a 17,000 seat arena, Brisbane Live would help secure signature drawcard events and drive growth in our local entertainment and tourism industries.”

“We encourage the state government to expedite negotiations on the Brisbane Live proposal, which will offer a new world city music venue for all Brisbane residents.”

Nick Cave continues his national tour tonight. See remaining dates here.