Live performances and Christmas shows Renowned for their energetic live shows, Weddings, Parties, Anything. had a handful of live songs that were nearly always guaranteed to push the mosh pit into a frenzy, particularly "A Tale They Won't Believe", the story of Alexander Pearce, a cannibal in the convict days of Tasmania. Fans would traditionally have coins ready to throw at the band as they sang the chorus of "Ticket in Tatts", while shielding their eyes. This was in reference to the lyrics concerning being "ten cents short of a dollar". The legendary Christmas shows were held at the Central Club Hotel in Swan Street, Richmond in the lead up to Christmas Eve every year from the late 1980s to 1998. Due to their increasing popularity and live reputation as a band, the number of concerts increased as the years progressed, culminating with seven nights in a row for the last year, 1998. In the liner notes for the CD They Were Better Live, a live recording of the concerts from the final year, the bands main songwriter and singer Mick Thomas stated: Live recording Various songs from the last shows in 1998 (and one track from 3 January 1999 at the Belvoir Amphitheatre near Perth, Western Australia) were recorded and released as a double live album, They Were Better Live, which was nominated for an ARIA award in 1999 for 'Best Blues & Roots Album'). The last performance was also the basis of a play, A Party in Fitzroy, by Victorian playwright Ross Mueller. Musical style Musically, Weddings, Parties, Anything. were a combination of Australian indie and garage rock, sixties folk, punk and (later) country and are usually described as being a folk rock band. The audience for the band was close to a mainstream rock crowd, their folk credentials were further evidenced by Celtic influences and an affinity for traditional Australian songs ("Streets of Forbes", "Sergeant Small"), plus original songs by Thomas which drew upon a similar repository of colonial folklore ("A Tale They Won’t Believe"). Canadian commentator Jeremy Mouat concluded that their "music is largely concerned with the connections between past and present, whether it be the bond of memory or an identification with tradition". They led what later became known as the alt-country scene in Melbourne. The band were often compared to The Pogues, though the two bands were actually contemporaries rather than one following the