Once again we have an album hand-picked to match up with a concert review. This also happens to be – fun fact – the second Australian band in a row!
Disc 1815 is…Cartoon Darkness
Artist: Amyl and the Sniffers
Year of Release: 2024
What’s up with the Cover? The band, presumably responding to the photographer’s direction to “do something wacky!” Let’s see – how did everyone do… Guy on the left? Wearing socks and sandals. Horrible, but all too common in these troubled times. Middle guy – solid approximation of hanging in space. I imagine he had to pogo like that multiple times to land it just right. Kudos. Guy on the right? Looks like he’s in a seventies cop movie and getting ready to beat some information out of a perp.
And as for Amy Taylor – aka Amyl herself? Ye olde boob flash. As wacky camera moves go, it’s a classic.
How I Came To Know It: I discovered the band through my buddy Nick. This album was just me checking out their latest release when it came out.
How It Stacks Up: I have all three Amyl and Sniffers albums released so far. They just keep getting better, and “Cartoon Darkness” comes in at #1, supplanting “Comfort to Me” which was not easy. Here’s the full recap:
- Cartoon Darkness: 5 stars (reviewed right
here)
- Comfort to Me: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 1628)
- Self-Titled: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1683)
Ratings: 5 stars
“Cartoon Darkness” is the best album of 2024. After I gave 2021’s “Comfort to Me” five-stars that was a tough statement to live up to but along comes “Cartoon Darkness” to elbow its way to the front of the line.
“Cartoon Darkness” manages to celebrate every facet of rock and roll, and still turn everything the colour punk. Previous Amyl and the Sniffers records have been more visceral and raw, but the amazing feat achieved here is to lose exactly none of their signature snap and snarl and still add new ways to bite you.
The band is savvy enough to start with some of the purest of the punk stuff. “Jerkin’” is a song that features Amy Taylor spewing a litany of insults to lame assholes the world over, who are left with nothing to do but pull their own puds in the shadow of her awesomeness. If that last sentence made you uncomfortable then you should definitely not listen to this song, because I was being positively euphemistic to how Amy tells it. If, however, you don’t mind graphic imagery that is the point and then some, then this is punk rock goes, this is grade A+ stuff.
The album also knocks out some great guitar riffs, as the Sniffers show that punk rock can be tight and well played and still sound nasty. Songs like “Bikini” take coy sexual notions and supercharge them with aggression, turning the male gaze back on itself so hard it’ll give you a slap.
Not unlike the last album I reviewed by Camp Cope, we once again have some great expositions on men behaving badly. “U Should Not Be Doing That” is about women staying faithful while their jerk boyfriends make bad decisions. Amy’s got no time for the double standard and this song makes it clear that when she gets home from tour, you should be packed and gone. She’s done the work, and the upshot is, you’re done.
That’s a few of the punkiest tunes on the record, by Amyl and the Sniffers show range on “Cartoon Darkness” with the melancholy “Big Dreams”, that is a slow and swaying mood piece that would be at home on a nineties grunge record.
They drop a guitar riff that demands horns in the air on “Doing in My Head” before breaking it down into a downward spiral of the harshest mosh tune imaginable. All that up high/down low combo takes a bit longer to roll out, and at 3:00 this is one of the record’s longest songs.
That’s right, Amyl and the Sniffers know that punk rock done right, gets in, throws some fists about, and then gets out and onto the next song. The sheer energy of jumping from one great track to the next – each different, but each more furious than the last – is liberating and energizing. The record is over and all you want to do is play it again.
Along the way, you’ll feel a little Black Sabbath, a little Black Flag and a lot of black humour, and each time you think “they can’t add that in here and make it work,” they do.
The album’s final song is the tongue-in-cheek (but still clench-fisted) “Me and the Girls,” a song about a girls’ day out at the airport. Drunk. Musically this song features a guitar riff that is the confluence of dancing, driving, and fighting, and just when you think this modern masterpiece can’t add one more sound and get away with it there it is – some Peter Frampton style talk box. And yes, this also works.
Best tracks: all tracks
The Concert: March 26 at the PNE Forum, Vancouver
For the second time in a month, Sheila and I found ourselves sufficiently motivated to fly to Vancouver to see a show. Before the show we had dinner at the awesome heavy metal/punk inspired restaurant “Jackalopes” which I heartily recommend. Good food, good service, great ambience.
The concert location this time was also in East Van but in a venue many times larger than the Biltmore – the PNE Forum.
The Forum is an old but grand building Built in 1931 it holds about 4,000 concert-goers. This is about four times as many as the Commodore Ballroom holds, which is critical, because Amyl and the Sniffers have apparently “blown up” as they say in show biz, and had the event moved to the Forum when the Commodore could not accommodate demand.
And so, on an overcast but pleasant Wednesday evening we found ourselves outside the majestic Forum, its wall lighting artfully showing off its art deco archictecture. She’s an aging beauty, but a beauty all the same.
Sheer Mag
The opening act was Philadelphia hard rock band Sheer Mag. I was pretty excited about this, as I have been a fan of the band since 2017 (I reviewed “Need to Feel Your Love”, their album from that year, back at Disc 1309).
Despite my love for their studio records, I was a little disappointed in the live show.
Things were off to an optimistic start. The band is a five-piece and they lean into to their driving, crunchy rock and roll with intent. Lead singer Tina Halladay is one of my favourite band leaders, but the energy of the performance, while honest, didn’t reach down and lift the crowd up like you have to do in a bigger venue. As one of our party accurately noted, the room felt a bit big for them.
I will admit that part of this was sound quality. Openers often suffer from a bit of mud in the production – the result of all the effort going into the headliner’s needs. Also, at a punk rock show I use ear plugs to save my hearing. I don’t put them all the way in – I want the crunch – but it can take me a few songs to figure out just where I need them to feel the dynamics of the music and avoid permanent damage. I hadn’t perfected that until the last couple songs in Sheer Mag’s set. That’s on me.
They worked their way up into songs I knew and loved, but ended with a fairly average cover of Slade’s “C’Mon Feel the Noize”. Not terrible, but not enough to win me over.
As you can see from the photo, their stage had a bunch of giant white dice props piled about the place. At the end of the show they saucily knocked one pillar over. While this action was very punk rock, it left me just wanting MORE dice-knocking action. Alas, it never happened, and the show ended as it began, with just a tap-tap of violent intent where I wanted a few hammer-swings’ worth.
Amyl and the Sniffers
After a bit of a lengthy sound check, Amyl and the Sniffers invaded the stage.
I say invaded, because it accurately describes the whirlwind of fury and glory that is frontwoman Amy Taylor.
Taylor is a force of nature. Wearing nothing but a bikini top and short shorts she stands 5’4” but holds the presence of a 12 foot tall goddess in full battle armour. Yes Taylor pranced and danced around, but it was very clear it was for her benefit, not because she was pandering to some external sensibility to “perform”. She doesn’t perform so much as she unleashes her creative energy, and lets the audience hold on for the ride.
It is hard to describe the charisma that rolls off Taylor in waves. I felt it hit me like the front edge of the hurricane before she even sang a note, and the gale force only intensified once the songs started. I immediately felt in the presence of greatness. Taylor has the visceral don’t-give-a-fuck attitude of Wendy O. Williams combined with the natural showmanship of a pop diva.
Fortunately, the band has the musical talent to back all that up. The songs were crisp, fast, and ferocious and since most of them are only three minutes long at most the band was able to play a lot of them. If there was a favourite of mine from any of the three records I didn’t hear, I can’t think of it right now.
Highlights included old faves like “Knifey”, “GFY” and “Security” and newer singles like “Jerkin’”, “Tiny Bikini” and “Me and the Girls”. These weren’t only favourites because I love these songs so much – they were played exceptionally, infused with all the force and presence they require.
The sound was definitely fully recovered, so the lengthy sound check paid off as well.
The crowd at the show was also a delight. Mostly (but not exclusively) under 35, there were plenty of folks that were true devotees to the punk aesthetic, making for great people watching in between sets. Everyone was well behaved, but in the good “it is still OK to shove each other in the mosh pit” kind of way.
Full marks to the merch table as well, which was fast and efficient, with plenty of awesome selections. I got a shirt for both bands (hey, just because I didn’t love the Sheer Mag portion of the show doesn’t mean I don’t still love the band)
As for Amyl and the Sniffers – I would see them again in a heartbeat. I just worry that at this pace the next time will be at a venue even larger than the Forum. I have no doubt they’ll be able to fill the room with energy just as effectively.
