Playing a sold-out Powerstation on Saturday night, the iconoclasts of Australian punk played a sexy, sweaty and politically charged smash-hit show. The Herald’s Emma Gleason was there.
Warning: Explicit language, mentions of sexual assault.
I don’t think I’ve ever left a gig wanting to go for a run or do push-ups, but after seeing Amy Taylor tear across the Powerstation stage for over an hour of headbanging and aerobic physicality while belting out the Melbourne band’s hard and fast (like their name) hits.
Energy is her X factor and her stage presence is already legendary. She’s been likened to an amalgam of Aussie icons Bon Scott and Chrissy Amphlett.
“I’ve got plenty of energy, it’s my currency,” Taylor sings on 2021’s Guided by Angels, and she’s not wrong. It, and three excellent LPs, are enough to sell out two nights at the Mt Eden venue this weekend.
At the vanguard of a new wave of Australian punk, they’ve vaulted onto the world stage with music steeped in nostalgia, raw larrikinism, politics and a refreshing “f*** it” attitude that speaks to a shared dissatisfaction.
Saturday night's concert saw a packed crowd at the Powerstation. Photo / Dougal Gorman
They sing about the cost of living, dumb c***s, gender tensions, conservatism, financially supporting artists, the grey walls of the city and the open road, and getting kicked out of the pub.
Everyone at the packed Powerstation is there to hear about it. For a band that sings about slut-shaming and “bumhole” dudes, there were way more men than I expected. But then again, Amyl go hard.
The mosh pit is already heaving for openers, Sydney punk band C.O.F.F.I.N. (local act Miss June was also on the bill).
Then Amyl and the Sniffers' bassist Gus Romer, guitarist Declan Mehrtens (whose parents are Kiwis) and drummer Bryce Wilson take the stage, and it’s time for the woman of the hour.
Taylor struts out in boots a corset and tiny hot pants. “How the f*** are ya?” she asks the crowd in that brilliant, high-pitched Aussie twang of hers. “It’s great to be here.”
It’s their first time performing in New Zealand. We scored three nights on their Cartoon Darkness world tour; they played Meow Nui in Wellington on Friday night, and Sunday is a second Powerstation show. All of them sold out. No door sales. No other chances.
Amyl and the Sniffers lead singer Amy Taylor. Photo / Dougal Gorman
Everyone should be stoked to be there. First though, some housekeeping.
“Don’t touch anybody who does not want to be touched,” Taylor warns. She witnessed - and experienced - sexual assault in the audience at past shows and wants none of that tonight.
They launch into the brilliant Doing In Me Head, a song that sums up the subject matter of their latest album Cartoon Darkness; fear at the world we’re facing, with climate change and big tech and being fed up with all of it and everyone, so saying “f*** it” and seeking out positivity instead.
Then it’s the catchy Security from their 2021 Comfort To Me - a hit about love and judgement. “Security will you let me in your pub? I’m not looking for trouble, I’m looking for love,” we sing along - then back to their new album, with Do It Do It getting the mosh pit heaving.
“It’s a pleasure to be here, this is f***ing lit,” Taylor says.
“This next song is how everything’s f***ed up; this song is about being confused being a person right now.” The band launches into Capital, a critique of the Australian Government.
Amy Taylor and Calum Newton perform at The Powerstation. Photo / Dougal Gorman
Back to their debut, self-titled ARIA-award-winning album (they’ve got a few of those under their belt) for Got You, the crowd belting out the chorus.
By this stage, the T-shirts are coming off the boys in the band and Taylor has dragged a stage fan underneath her. Not purely functional, on her platinum blonde feathered hair it has the effect of a wind machine. This girl gets glamour.
She wears blue eyeshadow and tiny hotpants - lambasting those who criticise her skimpy outfits via their music and the press - and Taylor’s style is an undeniable part of their appeal. Mining nostalgic tropes and twisting stereotypes, it’s sexy and unapologetic, and she asserts women have the right to wear what they want. The personal is political after all.
The political is political too. “I f***ing hate Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” she tells the crowd. “They’re trying to create division … make everyone hate everyone.”
A few songs later she raises the issue of violence, deploring how many women were killed in Australia last year at the hands of men. Showing the social empathy that underpins many of her interviews, she explains that male violence affects everyone, men included.
“Stop killing us,” she pleads, and the band launches into the gut punch that is Knifey, its powerful lyrics dreaming of walking in the park, walking by the river, safely.
Amyl and the Sniffers' Amy Taylor rocks out with the crowd. Photo / Dougal Gorman
You have to wonder what the men in the audience are thinking.
They’re enjoying the gig - the pit is male-dominated and crowdsurfers, managed by eagle-eyed security, pepper the show.
“You like swear words?” Taylor asks. They do, and they better, because next is the sizzling Jerkin, the first song on Cartoon Darkness - there’s an explicit music video that goes with it - a scathing clapback at critics and rejection of negativity.
“You’re a dumb c***, you’re an asshole,” Taylor belts, along with everyone in the venue.
Who wouldn’t want to sing along with lyrics like “jerkin on your squirter cause you’ll never get with me”?
Then there are some songs for the girls - though they all are really - with Me and The Girls and Tiny Bikini, the latter oozing petulance and sensuality. Though Taylor’s not wearing one this time, there are a few, as expected, on women in the crowd.
Amy Taylor and Bryce Wilson of Amyl and the Sniffers. Photo / Dougal Gorman
“We’re gonna slow it down for ya,” Taylor says, and it’s time for the aching horizons of Big Dreams. It’s one of the best songs on the album, exploring the claustrophobia and frustrations of small-town life, being broke, getting out.
Taylor is a Mullumbimby girl, originally. Now, they’re on the world stage. Interview magazine called Amyl and the Sniffers “the second coming of punk rock”; Taylor walked in a Gucci show; and the band’s up for a coveted Brit award this year.
The albums are good, brilliant, but the live shows are something else. Mehrtens, Romer, Wilson and Taylor are a tight, well-oiled machine, pumping out song after song with barely a breath in between. And she is magnetic.
Speaking of well-oiled machines, it’s time for Hertz - a pounder, impatient banger from Comfort to Me that gets everyone going. “Take me to the beach, take me to the country; climb in the back seat, if you love me.”
Is this the end? They leave the stage at 11.30, and chants for an encore fill the room. Minutes later, they’re back with two more songs to sate the crowd.
But even after those, and finishing on GFY, they leave you wanting more - not because they left anything on the stage, but because how could you ever get enough? That’s amyl for you.
