Before The Bad Seeds there was The Birthday Party (and before them: The Boys Next Door), four Melbourne school kids burning with the white heat of punk with Nick Cave as frontman (he couldn’t play), a teenage Bukowski channeling poetry, literature, rockabilly and blues. Touching down in London in 1980 to find that punk was spent and money hard to come by, The Birthday Party developed an unenviable reputation for rampant heroin use and fighting with their fans. But the music just kept getting better and better…
Narrated exclusively by the original band members, and featuring never-before-seen personal footage, dynamic animation sequences, and jaw dropping concert clips, the film provides a sweaty, electrifying front-row seat to to one of the most legendary live acts of a wild era — without running the risk of a kung fu chop from a smacked up Nick Cave.
Ian White
Nick Cave, Rowland S Howard, Mick Harvey, Tracy Pew, Phill Calvert
Australia
2023
English
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Editor
Aaron J. March
Original Music
J.P. Shilo