Aussie punkers Amyl and the Sniffers are ready to raise some hell in 2025. The four piece are armed with a new album, Cartoon Darkness, and a world tour that kicks off in January. We had the honor of having half of the band by our Setlist.fm studio, vocalist Amy Taylor and guitarist Declan Mehrtens, who shared some of their favorite live music memories so far. Take a look:
Blur
Declan: Blur, it was 2015 in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena. My first time seeing them. I think I've seen them five times now. Really influential, so it was really cool that they were coming to town. I had just had my wisdom teeth removed, so I shouldn't have been drinking, but I was, and I was in the third row of the standing pit. Third song in of the set, and then, all of a sudden, everything in my eyesight went blue. It became a blur, you could say. I came to, and I was being carried by a really big security guy. Later in the set, Damon Albarn, the singer, came down off the stage. I pushed everyone out of the way, and I grabbed his hand, and we sung "Trouble in the Message Center" chorus together. So, thank you, Damon. I think, with us, it's good to try and break the barrier between the performer and the audience. That's why this is a significant gig to me.
Cardi B
Amy: Cardi B. Would've been around 2019, I'm gonna say. We were playing Roskilde Festival. Cardi B was one of the people on this lineup. We had to play at 4:00 AM, I believe. What, was it 2:00 AM or 4:00 AM? So there was a big day ahead of us. It was a rainy festival. We had little tents that we could kind of exist in. And I know that it was the end of, maybe an already two-month tour. We’re all getting pretty weird at that point. Power Trip were playing, and Cardi B was playing at the same time. We're all kind of fans of both of them. And all the fellas in the band, they went and watched Power Trip, but I was like, "I gotta go see Cardi," 'cause I love Cardi B. Anyone with audacity, for me, I just can look up to them because I think there's not enough risk-takers. And I just think she's funny. She makes me laugh. She was on stage and she was killing it, and she was amazing. And then she said, a line, “Bitch, you ain’t gang, you lame.” And I was thinking, "Yeah, you know what? I am fuckin' lame. I'm watching a band by myself at a festival in the rain. I can't see shit." I was like, "She's speaking to me directly. I can feel it. It's time for me to go." That's the only time I've ever seen Cardi B, but I'd go again. I'd get a girl-gang together.
Juan Wauters
Delcan: July, 2024.
Amy: We were walking in Lawrence, Kansas. It was a really hot day. We went past this pub.
Declan: What's it called?
Amy: I can't remember.
Declan: The Boot, Boot something.
Amy: Something Boot. There was some bands playing, and we didn't know anything about Juan Wauters. I'd say there'd probably be a top of like, 20 people there. One man walked out on stage, acoustic guitar and a stool, and he sat down and he started to sing. We were just looking at each other from across the room, like, "This is incredible."
Declan: I don't think we've ever really been blown away by someone that we hadn't heard of before like that.
Amy: It was a real testament to taking a chance and going to see any live music. And mind you, this is pretty different stuff to what we're used to. The songs all had heaps of humor in them. I think at one point he took his shoes off, and you could tell he's like, he's a road dog. Motherfucker knows how to tour.
Declan: At the end of a song, he would pretend to throw his guitar. So it was like this gasp moment that everyone had, and it's something that I've tried to adopt for my set too.
Amy: It's nice to be able to give credit to where it came from.
