Live Review: Amyl & The Sniffers, Surfbort, Hussy

Punk rock ruled the night at Melbourne rockers Amyl & The Sniffers' Fremantle show at Rock Rover. The room was full of the pungent stench of weed, sweat and mullets, and punters who decided to come down were treated to a barrage of crowd-surfing and wild moshing.

Hussy’s performance kicked off the night with ecstatic flair, lead singer Shinead Ruby thrashing up and down the stage. They were a great local act to warm up the punters, who formed a small crowd and readily lapped up the jangly guitar riffs and catchy rhythms coming from the band’s bass and drums. Ultimately their set was infectiously youthful and fun, leaving a memorable impression upon the crowd with their breezy alt-rock.

Brooklyn punk outfit Surfbort brought the cheekiness of classic punk to life, the band’s tracks taking jabs at politics and real-life problems. Singer Dani Miller would add a little statement before each song, sharing a few details about their tracks. Whether it was saying a, "Fuck you," to Donald Trump and white supremacists, or talking about feeling ashamed of oneself when waking up hungover, Miller easily laid out the real enemies of punk; politicians and alcohol-induced headaches. Bringing with them a New Yorker sass that couldn’t be beat, their attitude embodied the original punk spirit and anarchic flavour of the Sex Pistols.

Amyl & The Sniffers' live show can only be described as beautiful chaos, with a raucous mosh pit forming every time they played a track. Lead singer Amy Taylor would jump fearlessly into the crowd mid-song, levitating on a sea of hands in an almost biblical fashion. There were moments it seemed she was never coming back down to Earth. The mixture of humour, hair metal guitar solos and unpredictability, led to a night of excitement with a deft element of surprise. The night finished on a short and punchy encore, leaving Rock Rover soaked with sweat. It was clear Amyl & The Sniffer’s had brought the house down with the local punk scene, who were tired from a serious cardio session of thrashing about in a mosh pit.