Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

All Points East Festival, London Victoria Park

Old-timers turn back the clock. What becomes of uncompromising cult rockers when they hit retirement age? Remarkably, some mature into arena-filling icons playing to 40,000 fans in a giant park. Headlining the final weekend of All Points East, 60-year-old Nick Cave presides over a bill loaded with grizzled post-punk pensioners, some performing for bigger audiences than ever.

The recently reconstituted Psychedelic Furs are a huge mid-afternoon draw. At 62, Richard Butler still possesses a commanding vampire cool, but performing in bright sunlight does little for his sweepingly romantic, croaky-voiced anthems. Elsewhere, APE offers a welcome feast of strong female artists, from Courtney Barnett’s sardonic observational slouch-rock to St Vincent’s guitarshredding, avant-pop histrionics. The 71-year-old punk high priestess Patti Smith’s ragged stream-ofconscious rambles drag a little, but she strikes a lovely note with her heartfelt take on Lennon’s Mind Games.

Nick Cave’s overdue promotion to the arena-rock league last year surprised nobody who has followed his increasingly expansive, inclusive, electrifying live shows over the past decade. This 90-minute set is fairly restrained by recent Bad Seeds standards, but still includes a ferociously filthy Stagger Lee and an achingly tender Into My Arms. There’s no roof on Victoria Park, but these Old Masters blow it off anyway. Unassailable.

Stephen Dalton