Some like it Hot
I'm back at the Factory Theatre and it's hot and sultry. We're lucky that this gig is going ahead, because the PM has announced a ban on all gatherings with a crowd of greater than 500 that will start in two days. Some have pointed out that the timing is very convenient and allows the Hillsong Church Conference to end before the ban comes into effect.
Tonight we are worshipping at the alter of punk rock. RMFC, from Ulladulla have been described as punk prodigies. They bound on stage and thrash through songs, many of which, in true Ramones style seem to last no more than two minutes. Powered on from behind the drums by Buz Clatworthy, the crowd starts moshing wildly. Tambourinist and occasional singer Grace Lee on the other hand, rarely dances but instead seems to have used John Cleese as her inspiration as she high steps her way around the stage, like Cleese's character in the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch.
Next, Amyl and the Sniffers are up. The guys in the band saunter on stage. Amy Taylor's blonde hair is slightly longer and she is wearing a gorgeous pink gingham top. She looks like a young Marilyn Monroe, but the similarities end there. Soon Amy is lying prostrate on the ground, writhing to the beat.
The sedate Marilyesque pink top is soon dispensed with and Amy does the rest of the gig dressed in a bikini top and Adidas shorts. She moves around the stage frenetically. The best part of an Amyl and the Sniffers gig is seeing how much Amy loves the music. She often joins the audience during the support acts. The crowd responds to her enthusiastic dancing and the mosh becomes chaotic. There isn't a photography pit and the photographers are desperately shielding themselves and their equipment from the cannonballing bodies by staying as close to the stage as possible.
The band is incredibly tight, they keep the momentum going, even when the stage is invaded by a dozen people. Amy exhorts the crowd to join in and soon there is a tsunami of stage divers hurtling into the crowd. She asks people to be respectful and not to touch anyone who doesn't want to be touched.
Even Grace Lee from RMFC isn't immune she comes on stage again, briefly dances with Amy and dives into the crowd.
It is good to know that punk is very much alive in Australia at the moment and Amyl and the Sniffers are at the forefront of the movement. In these troubling times of economic uncertainty and growing disparity between the haves and the have nots, it seems a lot like the 1970s. The world needs a new Johnny Rotten, wouldn't it be great if the new Johnny Rotten was a girl and she came from Australia and her name was Amy Taylor?
