Australian proto-punk legends
Radio Birdman were only a few months away from breaking up when they rolled into Paddington Town Hall in December 1977 to play a show for some of their most loyal fans. If the band had the end of the line in mind that evening, you would never know it to listen to their performance; a mobile recording rig was on hand to document the show, and the surviving tapes capture an incendiary concert, with guitarists
Deniz Tek and
Chris Masuak tearing into the band's repertoire with glorious ferocity and vocalist
Rob Younger howling like a man possessed by rock & roll. While three songs from the Paddington concert appeared on an EP, the full concert remained unreleased until it was remixed and remastered for
Radio Birdman's self-titled 2014 box set. While the box set only appeared on CD,
Citadel Records opted to release the live disc as a stand-alone vinyl LP, and vinyl enthusiasts and
Birdman loyalists alike will want to have this in their collections; it captures a fierce and suitably chaotic show from one of rock's most powerful live bands, and the set list not only features the group's best-known tunes (including "New Race," "Murder City Nights," "I-94," and "Do the Pop"), but a few rarities, including covers of
Blue Oeyster Cult's "Transmaniacon M.C." and
the MC5's "Ramblin' Rose." It took close to 40 years for
Live at Paddington Town Hall to finally surface, but one listen should convince any serious
Radio Birdman fan that it was worth the wait. ~ Mark Deming
