16/02/2025

Amyl & The Sniffers – Powerstation: February 15, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Possibly the most highly-anticipated concert since Jack White played The Powerstation back in December, Aussie rockers Amyl & The Sniffers made their Auckland debut at the same hallowed venue.

What a night!

It wasn’t enough that Amyl & The Sniffers were playing at the Powerstation with C.O.F.F.I.N., but at the last minute I find out Miss June has been added to the bill!

Miss June

We’ve been championing Miss June for years (click here to watch their 13^th Floor Video Session) and so were thrill to learn the band was ready to play a day after they released their new single, Halo Per Idol.

I managed to get in just as the 4 musicians stated their set with Twitch (8:15pm). The sold-out show hadn’t filled up yet so those of us on the ball enough to show up early were rewarded with a 30-minute set featuring plenty of new tunes, along with old favourites like Best Girl, Twitch and Matriarchy.

“We’ve been on hiatus but we’re back, baby!”

Frontperson Annabel Liddell then told us how the band first opened for Amyl way back in 2016 when they first played Melbourne.

It’s good to see all these fine folks supporting each other over the years. And I’m looking forward to supporting Miss June now that their self-imposed hiatus is over.

C.O.F.F.I.N.

North Sydney’s C.O.F.F.I.N. are next…13^th Floor reviewer Simon Coffey covered their headlining gig at Whammy a week or so ago, so I won’t go into depth here other than to say drummer/singer Ben Portnoy was a dynamo behind the kit and the microphone and he had a good long political rant about injustice with indigenous prison populations both in Australia and New Zealand, reminding us the 15% of NZ population is Maori but 50% of NZ prison population is Maori…calling out BS in the process.

Amyl & The Sniffers

Finally, at 10:21, the lights went down and a cheer went up and Amyl & The Sniffers took the stage. Bathed in red light they launched into Doing In Me Head and the crowd was with them from the first not, singing along and generally having a ball.

The quartet squeezed 21 songs into just under 80 minutes including a good chuck of their newest album, Cartoon Darkness, including, of course, Jerkin’, the song and the video that has taken the band to “the next level”

“What the fuck’s up”, Amy greets us as she swings, sways, prances and dances in her uniquely Australian style. I am reminded of Chrissy Amphlett of The Divinyls and Angus Young of AC/DC…but that’s probably because I’m an old guy.

There was plenty of audience interaction and communication throughout the set.

“Did anyone go to the jumping off the bridge thing” Amy asked.

And she and the band railed against Trump and Musk, calling them wankers and accusing them of inciting division “making everyone hate everyone”.

So there was plenty of substance mixed with the riffs, the profanity and the posing.

One young lady…dressed in what looked to be a school uniform… was invited on stage to sing with Amy, which had to be a thrill.

We even got comedy as Kiwi guitarist Declan Mehrtens filled us in on why seagulls fly upside down in Australia.

You had to be there!

Rock & roll is alive and well despite of, or possibly because of all the turmoil people are going through and band like Amyl & The Sniffers, C.O.F.F.I.N. and Miss June proved that there is still plenty that music can do other than just offer an empty way to pass the time…starting with a healthy disrespect for authority.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Brenna Jo Gotje:

Amyl & The Sniffers: