Nell and The Flaming Lips appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night (January 5) to perform their collaborative cover of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ ‘Red Right Hand’.
The iconic psychedelic rockers and their 14-year old guest Nell Smith released a nine-track Cave covers album titled ‘Where The Viaduct Looms’ in November 2021, featuring Nell supplying vocals and guitars alongside The Flaming Lips’ psychedelic take on the anthems Cave wrote with his band the Bad Seeds.
The young vocalist takes centre stage with her husky voice in this performance, LED lights forming hypnotic spirals around her and The Flaming Lips. Watch them perform ‘Red Right Hand’ below:
The Flaming Lips first came into contact with Smith after Coyne noticed she had been diligently attending their shows with her father for three years. After exchanging details with Smith’s father, Smith and The Flaming Lips would come together during the pandemic to record their tribute album.
In a previous statement, Smith revealed that she hadn’t heard of Cave prior to this tribute album: “I hadn’t heard of Nick Cave but Wayne suggested that we should start with an album of his cover versions, and then look at recording some of my own songs later. It was cool to listen and learn about Nick Cave and pick the songs we wanted to record.”
Cave himself went on to praise the Flaming Lips and Nell on his Red Hand Files website. “This version of ‘Girl in Amber’ is just lovely,” Cave wrote of their rendition of his ‘Skeleton Tree’ song. “I was going to say Nell Smith inhabits the song, but that’s wrong, rather she vacates the song, in a way that I could never do.
“Nell shows a remarkable understanding of the song, a sense of dispassion that is both beautiful and chilling. I just love it. I’m a fan.”
The Flaming Lips were recently forced to cancel their planned series of shows leading up to New Year’s Day due to the ongoing spread of the Omicron variant. The band announced that the shows would be rescheduled to February 19-20 2022, with all previously purchased tickets remaining valid for the new dates.
The post Watch Nell and The Flaming Lips cover Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ ‘Red Right Hand’ on ‘Colbert’ appeared first on NME.
