The Birthday Party – Live 81-82

The album received very positive reviews from various sources. “Though various live releases had emerged over the course of the band’s existence,” writes Ned Raggett for Allmusic, “no full-length capturing of the Party’s particular bacchanalia approved by the group had officially emerged until this release […][The album] threatens at all points to leap from the speakers and throttle innocent bystanders.”[1] Tim Peacock of Record Collector called it “a vital addendum to the pioneering Aussies oeuvre.”[2] Matt Mernagh of Exclaim! writes: “the only live album from these Australian bastards is a brilliant effort in capturing pure chaos. Whether its Nick Caves howls and murderous screams, Harveys squalor of blues guitar playing, Rowland S. Howards high pitched guitar riffs, Tracy Pews thumping bass being buried in the background and Phil Calverts hammering drum sound, this beast finds the band at their peak. […] By performing so well together, the frenzied noise has been planned, although it doesnt seem like that could be humanly possible.” He notes the audience response as being “enthused and stunned at the same time.” He finds the only downside of the album to be the fact that it “has been taken from three different locations and melded into one piece of music” instead of being from a single live show.[4] The sound quality of the performances received praise, as did the band’s cover of “Fun House“, the latter of which has been described as “viciously maul[ed] and deface[ed] [in comparison to the original]”[3] and a “relentless eight-minute thrash […] with Jim Foetus Thirlwell riding shotgun on sax that provides a suitably Bacchanalian climax.