Mutiny in Heaven Explores the Raw Early Years of Nick Cave's First Band

"The front row is not for the fragile, my dear," intones a shadowed, glistening Nick Cave to a wounded audience. It's a warning that echoes through Mutiny in Heaven, the new, rough-edged documentary chronicling the rise and fall of the musician's early band, the Birthday Party. Starting off as a group of private-school kids covering punk music, the band turned into a shambolic monster that conquered the clubs of Melbourne, then took on the world.

Mutiny, which screens in a limited run at the Sie FilmCenter from Tuesday, October 10, through Sunday, October 15, leans heavily on rarely seen concert footage, giving audiences floor seats to the short-lived experimental rock group's raucous spectacle. As viscerally documented in those tumultuous shows, the mercurial band held together just long enough to leave behind a small catalogue of abrasive, unforgettable music before imploding in the early ’80s amid spiraling drug abuse and infighting. It also launched the careers of some of the most notable Australian musicians of the era, including singer-songwriter Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist Rowland S. Howard.

Cave, undoubtedly the most famous of the bunch, first made a big impression on American film audiences with his gloomy but toe-tapping "Red Right Hand" from the Scream series, Sie programming director Keith Garcia recalls. "[That song] and the Murder Ballads album was definitely my first intro to the imposing figure that was Nick Cave," he says, "or at least the song that made me look up the menacing voice." In Mutiny, Caves's pipes definitely get a full workout, but even more exciting for fans is the chance to get a firsthand look at the crucial early years of their development.
Films that explore music have received a warm welcome at the Sie under Garcia. "If I could, I'd include a new or classic music doc, or music-infused film, into our lineup every month," he says. The Sie is also screening Jonathan Demme's famous Talking Heads concert film, Stop Making Sense, which makes for an interesting pairing with Mutiny. Although the two groups formed at roughly the same time — during punk's explosion (and then death) — by the time Demme shot the Talking Heads at the height of their powers, in December 1983, the Birthday Party had split half a year prior.

Originally formed while its members were attending Melbourne's Caulfield Grammar School, the Birthday Party eventually coalesced in the late ’70s around five members: Cave, guitarists Harvey and Howard, bassist Tracy Pew and drummer Phill Calvert. It was a talented group of strong personalities; the first three all shared (and fought over, in the case of Cave and Howard) songwriting duties, but the music was also influenced by the propulsive rhythm section. Various members were interested in literature, philosophy and recreational drug use — mostly heroin and speed, often at the same time. And when it comes to the band's complex internal dynamic, it says a lot that Pew, who landed an eight-month prison stretch for stealing a car and drunk driving just before a tour, wasn't the first member to get kicked out (he even joined the band again after getting out of jail). Calvert, however, was booted in ’82 for not being able to keep up on songs.

At its heart, the film is a fascinating attempt to reconstruct a few years in the lives of these precocious, deconstructive young artists early in their careers. For the most part, it lets the bandmembers' narration, gathered from decades' worth of interviews, melt over audiences in an intimate, dream-like flow. Aided by a tightly edited pace, lots of archival material and some linking animation, the result is less a traditional "talking-heads" doc and more an immersive visit to a place and time that no longer exists.
Viewers are submerged in the mystique of the band and frontman Cave, who has been quietly gracing the screen with his offbeat presence since those early Birthday Party days. In addition to his performances in such art-house classics as  Wings of Desire and soundtrack staples like "Red Right Hand," his career has become the focus of increasingly intimate documentaries, including 20,000 Days on Earth and One More Time With Feeling, both of which played at the Sie. He's also written and composed for films since the 1980s.

"He's touched so many films with very unique scores," notes Garcia, who highly recommends his music in The Proposition, which he also wrote the screenplay for. "[It's] a wildly great Australian Western made even better by his tinkling."

Garcia also just booked another exciting musical offering to bounce to: Beyoncé's Renaissance, documenting her massive world tour that stretched from Stockholm to Kansas City, which will open on December 1. He's also busy stocking up on cinematic candy for spooky season.

"The new restoration of Alejandro Amenábar's The Others will be haunting the Sie beginning Friday the 13th...and I'm lining up a couple of extra treats for the weekend" before Halloween, he says.

And with dark and cacophonous anti-bangers such as "Deep in the Woods," "Six Strings that Drew Blood" and "Release the Bats," Mutiny in Heaven fits into that seasonal category, as well. As Garcia puts it: "You can't go wrong with one of their songs sneaking onto your Halloween party playlist!"

Mutiny in Heaven: The Birthday Party, Tuesday, October 10, through Sunday, October 15, Sie FilmCenter, 2510 East Colfax Avenue. Tickets are $15 at denverfilm.org.