Noise Rock
1999
Live 81-82 captures a pre-Bad Seeds Nick Cave at his most frighteningly feral. The distant, stale sound of the band's studio production is tarred, feathered and burned in effigy here, first by Cave's manic howl, then by the discordant clang of Rowland S. Howard's guitar, and finally by the earth-moving throb of Tracy Pew’s bass.
The ear-shattering feedback intro to “The Friend Catcher” alone rivals anything the Jesus and Mary Chain ever did. This is an unrelenting, 2-LP frenzy of chaos and destruction, punctuated only by the restrained, almost polite applause from what appears to be an audience shocked into docile acquiescence.
