Amyl and the Sniffers - Hi Tone, Gonerfest, Memphis, TN - September 28, 2018

[from Melbourne Australia] This woman made me so happy. She was basically a demented jock. And it was effective. She opened with a crazy trill… even more disturbing because it was familiar. Australians are weird. Even weirder than Canadians. She wrapped the mic cord around her neck. She middle fingered and crazy-eyed us. Sometimes her tongue would flop and hang out the side of her mouth. Spastic arm motions, air punches et al. And she made it sexy. A dead ringer for The Runaway’s Cherie Currie, when she had a blond mullet. So if their sound was straightforward punk, their look combined 70s throwback and Die Antwoord. Like, the redhead mullet band member had no eyebrows. … I can’t get started on Die Antwoord because they torment/obsess me… But shaving your eyebrows is the best way to subtly terrorize people – you have this feeling the person you’re looking at is terribly terribly off but you Just Can’t Figure Out Why. Like when you feel like the universe is cracking in half and can’t remember that it’s just PMS. I got to wondering who was sleeping with who, because I’m basic. Nobunny introduced the band. The front woman of Amyl is the only reason I didn’t lead with this because Nobunny and I go back a ways ;) and I was excited. The one year I lived in Houston I fell in with these two women who’d been best friends FOREVER. One was headed for the Peace Corps and the other wore black eyeliner and did coke. The latter was as big a fan of Lost Sounds as I was – we became weird penpals who emailed each other relevant music. She recommended Nobunny as a great ‘perverted’ performer on the same label (Goner) as Lost Sounds – I saw him in Austin a couple years later and he fulfilled his billing. Someone in this band was wearing the blunnies Rockboy proudly wore forever – I think they’re from Australia but I feel like they’re prolifergating elsewhere, which would please Rockboy, as a vanguard.