Amyl And The Sniffers
Big Attraction

Here she is again, Amyl, still with her Sniffers.

And even if there's been a change of bassist, she doesn't let go and keeps going hard.

The beer supplies have run out.

Amyl doesn’t care about making records and selling them for money; if she bothers to grab a microphone, it's just to crash where there’s a chance of scoring a free drink.

Gone are the days of parties at friends' houses, it's time to start hitting the venues in Melbourne and the surrounding areas.

Those venues where you show up for the first time and say you only play covers, and they open the door and even hand you a beer and something to snack on; the second time, they're already looking at you annoyed and sighing, and they pass you much less beer, forget about food, and the rest you pay for yourself; the third time, we’ve already heard your music, we hired a new band, if you want to get in you pay for the entrance and drinks.

For this reason, in February 2016 Amyl makes an effort to pull out four songs, ending up in the tape «Giddy Up»: she needs them to get the door open and score some bottles before, during, and after the concert. That those four songs are exceptional is a detail, an extra to delude the girl into thinking she has talent.

But those four songs don’t even last ten minutes.

So at the concert, you play those four, about ten covers, and maybe you manage to entertain for half an hour because Amyl and the Sniffers play fast and say what they have in a couple of verses; there’s no need to embellish much on the same very old stories of sex, alcohol, and rock’n’roll.

A bit like the Ramones, who often only needed four lines of text to get their point across.

Then, Amyl, when she was a pretty schoolgirl, was taught that history always repeats itself in the same way.

Then, after a while, the venue people start looking at you annoyed and sighing at the same time, and bye-bye Amyl, come back when you have something new to offer.

No concerts, no beer; the supplies thin more and more until they’re gone; you have to go to the shop under your house, which, however, doesn’t care for you to perform for the housewives, and if you want the beer, you pay for it.

So Amyl starts writing again.

In February 2017, there are six new tracks.

Back to doing concerts, you play for about forty minutes, and above all, you start accumulating supplies again for the lean periods.

Those six tracks together are «Big Attraction».

And if «Giddy Up» is excellent punk rock, plus the surprise factor - and where did these guys come from - «Big Attraction» is downright sensational; and probably Amyl and her mates don’t care, but they write screaming songs; and not even the most accurate production, in the sense that «Big Attraction» sounds better than «Giddy Up», undermines the devastating impact of these songs.

We are always there, punk rock as played in Australia in the seventies, but keeping in mind that in those parts there were not only Radio Birdman and Saints, but also rowdy bands like AC/DC and Rose Tattoo happily infiltrated the ranks.

And then one wonders why Australian rock from the decade 1976/1986 was among the greatest expressions of rock’n’roll overall.

In these very deep grooves, Amyl and the Sniffers also move: «I’m Not a Loser», «Blowjobs», «Mole (Sniff Sniff)», and «Westgate» maybe don't have much to do with Birdmen and Saints, but cult groups like Babeez and Fun Things, Victims and Chosen Few are at home here, and Amyl memorized their lesson during many afternoons spent listening to some nuggets dedicated to those noisy years of down-under rock.

Then there are «70’s Street Munchies» and «Balaclava Lover Boogie», and you go even further back in time, a third of Stooges, a third of Damned, a third of AC/DC (the ones with Bon Scott in the lineup, of course), two amazing tracks: the first, even to watch, just to close the issue on how much Amyl might care about making money with her songs and the real motivations for her “making music”; the second, for now, only to listen to at all costs because I haven’t heard such a devastating piece in maybe twenty years.

With the hope that the beer lasts until the end of their days and that they are never forced to make an album.

Because I imagine Amyl and the Sniffers like certain American punk bands that at most made a couple of singles and then after twenty years, someone notices them, finds lots of things left in drawers, and brings out one of those cult anthologies to lose your mind over.

Only Amyl and the Sniffers are here and now, perhaps the best thing that has happened to punk music in the new century.