I made friends at the rock show: How Amyl and The Sniffers embody the modern vision of punk

Posted On November 23, 2024November 23, 2024

Worrying about train times isn’t exactly the most punk rock thing I could be doing, and yet that’s all that happens when waiting for Amyl and The Sniffers to take to the stage. The last train usually passes past midnight, but because of strikes, the last one is half past ten tonight. Given that the band don’t come on stage until after nine and the train station is a decent half an hour away, time is against me from the jump. 

I suppose there is some beauty I can find in the stress of the situation. The origin of punk came from wealth gaps and lack of opportunity that manifested in frequent strikes, so to watch a punk gig while worrying about a strike seems fitting. But fuck beauty. Amyl and The Sniffers are renowned for being the best live band on the planet at the moment. I want to watch the whole thing and get drunk afterwards, and as they open with ‘Doing In My Head’ in what is a seamless, near-perfect performance, I find myself cursing the air mid-applause that I won’t be able to watch the entire thing. 

With every song, the set only becomes more enticing. Amyl and The Sniffers have the most infectious energy. As Amy Taylor does push-ups on stage, you’re tempted to do the same, when she screams, so do you, and when she smiles, laughs, and jokes about something, the atmosphere in the building is elevated. It’s a mosaic of emotion but each second is perfect.

With every single song, I’m drawn more to the appeal of the gig, pulled slowly away from the train station and further into the crowd. Despite singing along to ‘Big Dreams’, nothing appeals to me less than “Getting out of here”. With every break for applause, I check the time, and as the songs are played and the seconds, minutes, and hours roll past, I need to leave the blurring punk gig behind to book an Uber. Rock ‘n’ roll.

More stress comes when standing outside, staring at my phone, and not having a single taxi turn up. “We’re connecting you with a driver,” replays over and over on the screen as a muffled ‘Chewing Gum’ can be heard pounding out the back of the venue. More time rolls by, and panic sets in until a kind couple – who are also waiting for a taxi to the train station – say that I can ride with them. 

It turns out we’re all getting on the same train, so at the station, we stop in a shop, buy beer and sit with one another on the journey home. In our home city, we end up in a pub and then a bar until the early hours. Good friends made at an Amyl and The Sniffers show, and while that might merely be something to look back on and smile at, it does a little bit more. It embodies the need for the band more than anything else in the world.

Back in the venue, as I found myself drawn further to the stage, tempted to forget the responsibility of getting home on time, it wasn’t just the sound that was so enticing. Yes, Amy Taylor is the best frontperson in the world, and yes, the guitar and instrumentation on the new album are the best Amyl has ever made, yet there is more in the room than just the band and the music—there are the people as well. 

The similarities in strikes and the emergence of punk that I reminisced on earlier would never work as a direct parallel. Punk isn’t the same as it was in the ‘70s because the world isn’t the same. Counterculture is a tricky beast to pin down in the modern age because of the world of social media and the fact that, despite occasional controversy, the content we are subject to is catered to our specific interests. Subsequently, establishing what culture is and what counter-culture is can be tricky.

The ability to surround ourselves with the art, politics and opinions we agree with means that our own branch of yes-men consistently surrounds us. The world must agree with us because the world is on my phone, and the majority of what I see on my phone aligns with what I believe in. Creating something which stands as a rebellion against the mainstream can’t happen anymore because mainstream media is whatever you want it to be. So, where the hell does that leave punk music?

I believe it exists in the form of Amyl and The Sniffers. Their sound carries anger, undeniable anger. Songs like ‘Jerkin” and ‘Pigs’ have aggression protruding in a stunning and thought-provoking way. However, a lot of it isn’t aimed at anyone in particular; it’s a scream into the void. Despite the fact we can cater our everyday media consumption to align with our opinions, there is still a negative aspect that follows in the wake of the internet: anonymous hatred and access to world events. We are subject to war and controversy, and as such, regardless of your opinions on specific events and how much you try to shield yourself from things, they creep through, and anger is necessary to try and deal with them.

Hate dominates everyday life. In the wake of the internet and our ability to surround ourselves with like-minded people, an openness to listen to others and empathise with those we might not be able to relate to has been eradicated. Kindness is sparse and barely visible, and subsequently, kindness and joy are the punkest things in the world, and they radiate throughout an Amyl and The Sniffers gig.

It took meeting strangers on the journey home to realise it, but among those bouts of anger, those screams of resentment and confusion which surround their aggressive sound, there is joy, harmony and kindness, both in the way the band interact with the crowd and how the crowd interact with one another. Punk, in essence, can’t exist in the modern world because everything is mainstream and nothing is mainstream, meaning punk, as a backhand to mainstream culture, slips into obscurity as a concept. 

Amyl and The Sniffers represent the new modern interpretation of the world. It is acknowledging the problems we are subject to but also having fun, which we owe to ourselves as humans. There has never been a more necessary band and a more necessary live experience. Life is short, and life should be fun, but our modern access to information and the naivety that comes with the restrictions we can impose on ourselves mean making sense of the world is difficult. So give yourself a moment and stop trying to make sense of it. Go to a gig, be kind to strangers, and enjoy yourself. That’s what gigs are all about, and Amyl and The Sniffers channel it perfectly.

This is punk in the 21st Century, and it’s beautiful.

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