Live 1981–82

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2026: #41 A Live Album (11th Album)

Here we have three shows (more like 2 and something) collected into one archival live album.

The London show is my favorite out of the two, with the run from The Dim Locator to Nick the Stripper being my favorite tracks. It sounds more "clear", if such a thing exists with the Birthday Party, than the Germany show, which also has its moments, like Dead Joe and the punk blues She's Hit. At the end, both shows suffer a bit from having filler sprinkled in-between the great songs, and it hurts the overall album.

But I think the most powerful thing on this album is the Funhouse cover. The Stooges are, in my opinion, a hard band to cover, despite them having a plethora of tracks that are "easy to pin down", because most of those bands sanitize the energy the Stooges created into a bland 3-minute rock song. The Birthday Party managed to actually ADD more power and energy to an already ludicrously powerful song, and it standing at the end of the track list puts the icing on a very good album.

But thank you [~SpeedKills] for the rec!