Amyl and the Sniffers, Gym Shorts and No Tides at the Bunkhouse Sunday Mar 24, 2019

Melanie saw someone posting about Australia's Amyl and the Sniffers online and thought that they sounded like a wild'n'wooly, fun time, so we made it out on a Sunday night to check out the scene.

Opening the evening was a local combo, the No Tides, who combined surf, punk and 50's-styled oldies in an unusual mix. They were young and appeared to lack stage experience and they switched members several times during their set, making it all a bit disjointed, especially combined with the odd combination of styles. They weren't bad, but definitely need to plot out what they really wanna do and work some more on tightening up and pulling together their stage presence.

I'm pretty sure that Gym Shorts (not the best name, by any stretch) said that they were from Rhode Island, although I don't know if they are on tour or they have resituated themselves in Vegas. In any case, they were a reasonably tight, female-fronted, punk/grunge group with a strong drummer and simple songs with goofy lyrics. Songs like "Copycat/Jinx", "Ding Dong Ditch" and "Go Fish" were introduced with embarrassing exhortations like "let's open this pit up!" and "raise the roof". The silliness made us literally laugh out loud, but didn't really make us go over to the merch table.

Despite only have one single out, Amyl and the Sniffers are riding a tidal wave of hype, apparently mostly due to the lead singer, who is a combination of Wendy O. Williams, Cherie Currie , Liz Dealey from Australia's Twenty Second Sect (actually, the Sniffers reminded me a little of this group, in general) and  Bon Scott! That is not to say that the musicians aren't super-solid, as well - a tight rhythm section (although the mullets and the drummers' cat makeup were a bit distracting) and a rockin', talented lead guitarist drive the sounds behind Amy's vocals and gymnastic-like antics. She doesn't stand still for a moment throughout the entire set and is certainly the visual centerpiece of the group. The songs are kinda basic, sing-along punk rock - maybe a mix of Oi and Rose Tattoo! Even though the only release is the one 7", somehow or another audience members were singing along while dancin'n'slammin' and havin' a blast throughout the night.

Super fun set and stage show - not sure what I will think of the music when I hear it recorded, but I will be looking out for the record when it comes out (the 7" sold out right in front of us last night) and will keep an eye on these Aussies!