Amyl And The Sniffers @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 16/1/2025
Wow! This was the hottest ticket in town and had been sold out literally moments after tickets went on sale. Arguably they could have played an even bigger venue and still would have still sold that out. So it was hot, sweaty, loud, raucuous and jammed packed and if you rocked up minutes before the show good luck getting a spot. This will be one of those gigs where people will be saying “do you remember when you saw Amyl and the Sniffers at Hindley Street Music Hall” much like there earlier infamous performances at The Cranker, Jive and The UniBar.
It felt that hot that it seemed literally like sweat was dripping from the ceiling and once Amyl and the Sniffers took the stage the energy kicked up a notch ten fold. Once thing is for certain when you see one of the hottest bands going around at the moment once they take the stage they give it everything and leave absolutely nothing on the stage. This show was no different. Celebrating the release of their third album Cartoon Darkness, which is a phenomenal album, it was an epic set list covering their back catalogue. Eleven songs from the thirteen off Cartoon Darkness were played which is mind blowing.
The band were red hot right from the get go and singer and human dynamo Amy Taylor commanded the stage as they bulldozed they way through Doing In Me Head, Freaks To The Front and Do It Do It. Amy was quite clear from the outset that this is a safe space for everyone and for people to keep their hands to themselves. Taking a stand against domestic violence was another extremely important message that was conveyed during the show. It was great to see that the crowd were going just as hard to the new songs as much as they did with the older songs. Chewing Gum will no doubt be a set staple and Security was uber popular and how can you beat the singable chorus of “I’m not looking for trouble, I’m looking for love, I’m looking for love, Will you let me in your hard heart? Let me in your hard heart, let me in your pub.”
Got You from self-titled was killer as was Some Mutt (Can’t Be Muzzled) followed Knifey which addresses some societal issues about domestic violence. It was a very strong message from Amy who said she is more vested in politics now and is still learning adding that she “only started recently washing my hands with soap”. The band was in rampaging form knocking over one song after another and with a brief pause it was on to the next. Guided By Angels was awesome followed by Pigs and then Control off self-titled. It was more from the new album which thematically seemed well connected with Jerkin’, Tiny Bikini and Me And The Girls.
The crowd gave the band plenty of energy to feed off which was returned as the songs kept coming with Maggot, Big Dreams and It’s Mine. U Should Not Be Doing That featured followed by the b-side for that single in Facts which was a solid addition. Hertz was an absolute belter and just when you thought we got it all the encore of Balaclava Lover Boogie and GFY took things to another level topping off the night smashingly.
Live Review By Rob Lyon