The Birthday Party - Live 1981-82

An apocalyptic party with The Birthday Party

Jesus Christ what a beast of a record. This is one of my favourite live albums ever.
Three of the ferocious live shows from The Birthday Party are recorded for this album, and man do they sound fantastic.
From the start of the raw pulsating “Junkyard” till the apocalyptic cover of The Stooges’ Funhouse, this freaking record grabs you by the head and hits you face first into a wall of noise, screaming and tortured instruments.

In my opinion this record also displays the No Wave sound of The Birthday Party the best. The Guitars are as abrasive as you can get and give the songs a dense and thick feeling. Meanwhile the rhythm section gives the music a hypnotizing pulse through its driving repetition.
Of course the vocals shouldn’t be ignored. Nick Cave is a fantastic and charismatic front man with a great delivery and this record isn’t an exception of course.
Through shrieks and screams, Cave delivers his apocalyptic rants and songs. And boy oh boy does Cave sound fantastic live.

One of the best things about this record is how great a display it is of how The Birthday Party took the rage of Proto-Punk like The Stooges, and built upon to create a sound even harder than what The Stooges did.
Best displayed of course on the Funhouse cover. The original is a Proto-Punk legend in its own right but The Birthday Party takes the song and pushes it to such sheer insanity that I can only sit back in silence and be blown away by it.

I recommend this record to everyone that has interest in No Wave music and some of the most ferocious Post-Punk ever conceived!