Live Review: Amyl and the Sniffers @ Moth Club, London

Melbourne punks play high-voltage sold-out show at London's Moth Club.

London's Moth Club is so rammed to the rooftops for Aussie punk band Amyl and The Sniffers sold-out show that fans have to sit on the bar to get respite from the jam and make room for the last entrants. Even before singer Amy Taylor and musicians Declan Martens, Gus Romer and Bryce Wilson take to the stage the intimate venue is insanely hot and sweaty but that is nothing compared to how we feel once they start thrashing out the numbers and jumping around the venue. Straight to it, they tear through the tracks from the two EP's we've heard from them which have been compiled together and re-released this year via Damaged Goods 'Big Attraction & Giddy Up'. Two songs deep, and it's all in - the young punks in the audience are on it - a wave of crowd surfing is invoked which ends in someone crashing onto the floor momentarily before jumping back up, something that Taylor gets involved in herself much to the delight of the crowd, before she escapes their clutches and climbs back to the stage via the ceiling - like a scene from the Exorcist. Midway through, Declan Martens, the Sniffers hyper fizzing guitarist steps up to the mic to announce, “That’s pretty much all we’ve got, the rest are all covers.” The speed at which they blast through the tracks makes this totally believable, but in the end - the group play just one hilarious cover of ACDC's 'Dirty Deeds Done Cheap' and this is during the encore to which the audience keeps yelling out for one more song. Throughout the gig, a game of Chinese whispers erupts amongst the crowd - apparently Brit Pop legend, Jarvis Cocker is there at the back of the room, but by the time we scrummed our way to the back of the venue to exit, he'd vanished into the night - much like the evaporating sweat and energy left over from Amyl and The Sniffers raucous show. Amyl and the Sniffers are a band not to miss live, they bring it, invoke a party and then leave you high and sweaty. Photo: Sonicdocument