by Conor Lochrie (@conornoconnor)
The EP was released on May 1st, via ATO Records and Rough Trade (and Flightless in their home country of Australia) when the band should have been on tour. This record will help satiate their following until lockdown ends, though, and that there are only three songs on it isn’t an issue either, such is the searing quality of each one. All of the tracks were recorded at The Croxton in August of last year, one of Melbourne’s best venues.
The band released their acclaimed self-titled debut album last year and this live record will continue their strong momentum. Led by one of the greatest lead singers of the past few years, Amy Taylor, they’ve built up a ferocious reputation for their live shows, ensuring that this EP should become a defining companion piece to their recorded work. The album follows in a long lineage of excellent live recordings of punk bands that capture even the smallest amount of the chaotic energy that seeing them in the flesh entails. Live at The Croxton flashes by in just under ten minutes but not before the dynamism and raucousness of their livewire energy is translated to the listener. Taylor suitably kicks things off on “Control” by yelling, “This song’s about me being a boss!,” and it’s not something one should question. She encapsulates the band’s anarchic ethos and her burning onstage presence is a large reason for their growing success in both Europe and the U.S..
Amyl and the Sniffers are able to transcend the limits of the pub rock genre that they’re often labeled as due to their unwavering belief in themselves and the attitude they display. Their sound is unrepentant punk, tinged with glam, and is presented in a way that makes any listener know that they don’t care what anyone thinks of them. They possess the blatant disregard for taste and style that a young punk band should. The band’s virulent sound is not the sort to be overly scrutinized - it’s best listened to in the moment, uncut and unclean - but what one does notice is strong.
The riffs rip and throb through the runtime and never allow for a moment of pause or slackness and the lyricism is simple but effective: on “Gacked On Anger,” Taylor cries “I wanna help out the people on the street/But how can I help them when I can’t afford to eat?/How do I survive? How do I get by?/I can’t go to sleep ‘cause there’s trouble in my mind”; this kind of hard punk never goes out of fashion but the economic problems it often rallies against sadly does not. This album not only captures the sound of a band in their natural live habitat but also the sound of a band who know who they are and what they stand for. If they don’t let their foot off the throttle, Amyl and the Sniffers’ third album, whenever it comes, should increase their standing in punk music both at home and abroad.