One of the band’s most famous boogies is “The Bitter Boogie,” a four-minute bluesy jam written by Ambrose and Stu. The verses, sung by Stu, describe a short temper that its narrator says “comes without warning.” They try to control it and hope that, despite their bitter nature, it's not reflective of who they truly are. Ambrose’s verses follow a different rhythm, but expand on this person’s personality as well as their ways of coping with stress. “The Bitter Boogie” features piano, acoustic guitar, bass, harmonica and clarinet, as well as some unique sections with a guitar string getting tuned down in real time. It remains a beloved track within the weirdo swarm, a reputation helped by its live versions that serve up explosive and expansive takes on the boogie. It was first heard on August 24th 2015 as part of ATO’s Paper Mâché Dream Balloon Sampler on Soundcloud and was officially released as part of Paper Mâché Dream Balloon on November 13th. An instrumental version was released as part of the deluxe edition of Paper Mâché Dream Balloon on October 29th, 2021. Interestingly, the “instrumental” version of the song keeps Ambrose’s vocals and has a unique intro with studio noise.
The earliest known performance of “The Bitter Boogie” was on 2018-11-23 at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney. It was then played at the following two shows. These versions were electric and ran longer than the studio version with more jamming. The song returned in 2019 as a prominent closer throughout much of the year, although by 2019-10-11 it began to be placed elsewhere. These versions could reach upwards of thirteen minutes in length and allowed Ambrose to work the audience. A performance of the song from 2019-10-15 can be briefly heard in the film Chunky Shrapnel. The song was not played in 2020 but returned on 2021-10-30 for Play On Victoria at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. The next two performances of the song were the first acoustic renditions on stage, starting with 2021-12-13 at the Brunswick Ballroom in Naarm (Melbourne). Going forward, both the electric and acoustic version remained in the band's lineup. For 2022 the electric version had returned to being a show closer, although this changed yet again in 2023.
2024 would see the most drastic change yet. For the song’s performance on 2024-05-23, Cavs played the rhythm of the Gumboot Soup song “Muddy Water” under the boogie’s usual groove. They continued to play around with this concept in numerous standalone performances until 2024-08-24. Here the band introduced the inverse: a performance of “Muddy Water” featuring the rhythm of “The Bitter Boogie.” Four days later on 2024-08-28 the band combined both new renditions into one long suite. This would become the go-to for Gizzard that year (a fairly standard performance did occur on 2024-11-02 but featured the “Muddy Water” rhythm during its ending jam).