Nixa: The Kirk/Spock of Our Generation
“Blixa sighed and rolled sideways, his arm reaching unconsciously into the space where Nick should have been. The absence of an expected touch was enough to pull him out of sleep, and he blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the dim light in the room. The faint orange glow from the streetlamps outside allowed him to pick out Nick’s silhouette against the window. He was looking upwards, naked, framed by the open curtains.”
Yes, Virginia. There is such a thing as Nick Cave/Blixa Bargeld slash. Of course! So what is that makes this celebrated pairing – affectionately titled “Nixa” by fans – so hot? Is it the fact they’re a couple of tall, brooding preternaturally beautiful men? Perhaps it’s the fact that both exude a type of sizzling intensity, so that there appears to be a constant electrical tension between them. Whether you’re a Nixaphile or just a Bad Seeds fan, the video above – a piece of live concert footage that originally aired on German television – is very touching. The crowd evidently expected Kylie Minogue to appear on stage and sing Where The Wild Roses Grow with Nick Cave like she does in the music video, but guess who took her place? That’s right. Blixa. The Aragorn to Nick Cave’s Legolas. The Lee Adama to to Nick Cave’s Romo Lampkin. The Lord Voldemort to Nick Cave’s … oh, just watch the video.
I love the part where Nick gives Blixa a flower! So romantic. And just ’cause, here’s a hot picture of a younger Blixa:
Pencil drawing by Paul Komoda
June 13th, 2008 at 6:03 am
that’s a fantastic clip!
i love how blixa starts off all shy, reading the words from his little book and glancing up at nick every now and again. and nick is all patient and gently encouraging – totally hot.
who the fuck needs kylie anyway?
xxx
n.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:07 am
You’ve done it again-
an artist I didn’t know about has blown my mind! That amazing schiele-y drawing meant I had to go check out Paul Komodo…and now I am mad with delight.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I think you mean “the Snape to Nick Cave’s Harry”
June 13th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Haha Nick is the dorkiest dancer! Great video, though. ^_^
June 14th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Further proof that any variation of sexual congress can be found on teh internets. And slashfic writers are the furries of the literary world….
June 14th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
thanks Nadya, that’s the laugh i needed today!!!
Blixa looks so embarassed in that video. i prefer the vid for the Weeping Song, very man-love, and two prenaturally beautiful men in slick suits!
June 14th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Heather: Yeah, Weeping Song is great… love how the video looks kinda budget, but still totally works. They both look totally drunk. :) I think Blixa looks embarrassed because he’s afraid to screw up the song, he’s probably singing it for the first time and doesn’t even have the words memorized… but it’s clear they’re both into the performance, it’s part of the charm :)
James: Slash writing is a hobby just like any other, a way for people to socialize based on a combination of common interests: a given literary (or in this case musical) genre, their sexuality, and enjoyment of the act of writing. It can get pretty weird sometimes, but I see no special reason to ridicule it, and from what I gather, most of them don’t take it too seriously themselves. Same with furries, actually. It always bothered me how they sort of became the de facto butt of every internet joke.
June 29th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Yes. This is the good shit, right here.
Also, I love that drawing by Paul so much… he should do a whole series of PBMs. :D
September 15th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I’m honored you picked my crappy bit of writing over many other (and much better) pieces to use as an example.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Just dropping in to say hello and that I’m flattered that you kicked off your piece with the first paragraph of one of my fics. I was a bit surprised you didn’t drop me a line to say you were planning to reproduce it. I’m not bothered about credit or linking, or anything like that, but I find it quite interesting and rather nice to know where my words end up…
The Wild Roses video is lovely, isn’t it? :o)
February 17th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I wasn’t cool enough to write Nixa. I wrote Duran Duran slash. *blush*
February 17th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Damn, the video has been removed
February 17th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I fixed the video. Thank you!
April 20th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Nadya, I love this post. I’ve read it several times since you published it. I’m of the opinion that Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld were immediately and irrevocably infatuated – from the moment they were introduced by Gudrun Gut, backstage at a Birthday Party concert, at the Amsterdam Paradiso in June 1982. Within 3 months Nick moved himself and his band to Berlin. It was not long before Blixa replaced Rowland S. Howard and he and Nick co-founded Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
If I were to describe what I imagine happened, I’d say that Nick took Blixa as his musical paramour. If that rather intimate designation suggests that they were physical together, fine with me. They were young, beautiful, and perfectly suited to one another. Nick once called Blixa his ‘Siamese twin of the soul’. In a recent video interview, Blixa said that in 1982 he and Nick would go to the recording studio alone in the middle of the night to ‘kill time and possibly record something’. How impossibly sexy and wonderful to imagine them courting in a recording studio? Well, perhaps the scenario belongs in one of my fictions but how fabulous that so many enjoy the fantasy of their pairing!
Thanks for letting me ramble. Do come and visit us at Nick Cave Fixes. There’s a good bit of Blixa there, as well. http://nickcavefixes.wordpress.com/
Meanwhile, here’s a clip I uploaded which shows the pair performing the same duet 2 years later. Very different interaction- more fun but just as hot. “Where the Wild Roses Grow” – Nick Cave & Blixa Bargeld at Midtfyns, Denmark, 1998
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcSADT6MMjQ
April 21st, 2009 at 2:57 am
Morgan, that comment was hot. It made my night. Thank you!
May 25th, 2009 at 1:22 am
first of all, I’m sorry for my english.
great to come across this post! I’m crazy about Nixa and I thought something’s wrong with me, so it’s nice to discover that a couple of people share my deviation ;)
this is one of my favourite Nixa performances (along with The Weeping Song from Paradiso and british TV, and Roses from Midtfyns) *__*
I LOVE:
the way Blixa avoids looking into Nick’s eyes;
the way Blixa steals glances at Nick between 1:20 and 1:30;
Blixa’s smile when given a flower;
how Blixa looks into Nick’s eyes at “on the second day…” and Nick’s smile;
“on the zird day he took me to the river”;
Nick looking at Blixa with sexy smile at 2:48;
and much more.
…time to take my pills?
October 30th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Oh dear God, is there actually Nixa slash fanfic? I’m tempted to click the link, but at the same time I am very afraid of what lies therein. Thinking of the Snape analogy, I’m reminded of how I can never see the Harry Potter books in the same light after reading a particularly strange fanfic that my friend sent me…
Lovely video, though! I can never get enough of Blixa Bargeld. The drawing is absolutely lovely, too…
April 21st, 2010 at 11:47 am
Great comments! I’m back to drop a link to our Blixa blog, which is a spin-off from Nick Cave Fixes. It’s called ‘Seele Brennt’ and can be found at: seelebrennt.wordpress.com
Cheers!
November 30th, 2011 at 8:37 am
oh my, this is an old post! but still just as lovely and as relvant today as it was then. it’s my hope that this is a pairing/fandom that will see a revival soon.
i also wanted to say that blixa actually recorded the very first version of ‘where the wild roses grow’ – years before kylie’s version, he volunteered to do the female guide vocal, and kylie imitated him during her recording. so it was far from his first time performing the song – makes you wonder why he was acting so shyly, doesn’t it?
April 26th, 2012 at 9:44 am
^Probably it was the first time that he sung it in public, that’s why.
December 9th, 2013 at 12:27 am
Personal favourite, that pairing is! I just love it how they kissed on stage after performing Where Wild Roses Grow. Every. Bloody. Time.
P.S. I beg your pardon… Lord Voldemort to Nick Cave’s who? ) I’m really eager to know. ))