FROM THE PUB TO THE PAVILION | AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS HUGE HOMECOMING

LIVE REVIEW | AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS | MELBOURNE SIDNEY MYER MUSIC BOWL 24/01/2025 by Kayleigh Nickson

A sunny Friday night in Melbourne only calls for one thing… an Amyl and The Sniffers show. A homecoming like no other, the Melbourne ‘pub’ band has quite the upgrade as the headlined the city’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl performing an incredible set to over 12,000 fans. 

MISS KANINNA

Opening the show was Miss Kaninna, an emerging Australian artist who blends elements of Pop, R&B and Hip-Hop. Last year, it was announced that she is the first independent Aboriginal woman to ever be nominated for a debut single at the ARIA Music Awards, a reflection the lack diversity in the scene. Hopefully, this is a call for a more diversified future, and that more artists like Miss Kaninna will get their time in the spotlight. 

She hyped up the crowd by performing songs such as ‘Dawg In Me‘ whilst also touching upon political matters which matter to her. Discouraging the celebration of Australia Day (26th January) – day which marks British Colonialism – is truly a day of mourning for the country. The crowd cheer in solidarity before moving into her debut single ‘Blak Britney‘; a song she describe’s as ‘an anti-establishment anthem’.  

BOB VYLAN

Travelling all the way from London, punk duo Bob Vylan brought the British charm to Melbourne. They started their set with meditation and stretching before kicking off with ‘Dream Big‘. The self proclaimed ‘most important band in Britain’ spent the half an hour set getting the crowd up and dancing while frontman, Bobby Vylan paced the length of the stage with unmatched swag. I had been waiting since Slam Dunk North in May last year to see these guys after they were forced to pull out last minute due to a ‘backstage altercation’ at the Slam Dunk South event. They were worth the wait as they put on a great show.  

AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS

Formed in Melbourne in 2016, Amyl and The Sniffers are the punk band who are taking the world by storm. The Cartoon Darkness World Tour started in Adelaide last week and will take the band across Australia, New Zealand, South America, USA, Canada and Europe, with some added festival line ups for good measure.

Never in my life have I looked at Whoopee Cushions like lead singer Amy Taylor has, who at some point thought “this would make a cool outfit” and tonight decided to bring that vision to life. Modelling a bra and skirt made entirely out of the novelty toy, Amy absolutely rocked the look along with her signature blue eyeshadow.  

The band performed hits from all three studio albums including older songs ‘Hertz‘ and ‘GFY‘. Speaking of latest album ‘Cartoon Darkness‘ Amy says:

“Cartoon Darkness is about climate crisis, war, A.I., tiptoeing on the eggshells of politics, and people feeling like they’re helping by having a voice online when we’re all just feeding the data beast of Big Tech, our modern-day God. It’s about the fact that our generation is spoon-fed information. We look like adults, but we’re children forever cocooned in a shell. We’re all passively gulping up distractions that don’t even cause pleasure, sensation or joy, they just cause numbness. Cartoon Darkness is driving headfirst into the unknown, into this looming sketch of the future that feels terrible but doesn’t even exist yet. A childlike darkness. I don’t want to meet the devil halfway and mourn what we have right now. The future is cartoon, the prescription is dark, but it’s a novelty. It’s just a joke. It’s fun.” 

The energy they gave throughout the entire performance was magnificent. Amy spent the 2 hour set dashing about on and off stage, headbanging so hard that she must’ve went home with whiplash. The spotlight she had on her struggled to keep up with her movements and left her in the dark a few times. Speaking of dark, I thought it was a bit strange that the rest of the band spent most of their time in the dark while all the focus was on Amy but who knows, maybe the Sniffers prefer to stay out of the limelight.  

The crowd was engrossed with the performance no matter where they were stood, from the barricade to the back of the lawn, the band had the crowd in the palm of their hand, dancing and singing around with every beat and every lyric. 

From start to finish the entire show was the epitome of raw, hardcore punk and I had goosebumps throughout the whole thing.  

There are still tickets available for the rest of the tour, if they’re performing at a city near you I highly recommend taking the time to watch their show.  

You can find remaining tickets to the tour here: AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS TOUR 

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