REVIEW: Amyl and the Sniffers w/ Sheer Mag | 5.23.25 @ Marathon Music Works [PHOTOS]

Amyl and the Sniffers
w/ Sheer Mag
Marathon Music Works; Nashville, TN
May 23, 2025

Review by Philip Obenschain. Photos by Mary-Beth Blankenship.

It would be an understatement to to say Australian rockers Amyl and the Sniffers are having a moment right now, given the unbelievably passionate crowd that turned out to the final stop of their latest North American tour, the group’s biggest stateside run yet (as the marquee out front noted, this show was “sold the fuck out”), here at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works. Formed almost a decade ago, the scrappy punk turned pub and garage rock quartet first picked up some steam in the late 2010s, especially at home in Australia, and began to make waves around the world following 2021 sophomore LP Comfort to Me. But it was last year’s ferocious, provocative, socio-politically charged, unadulteratedly rock and roll Carton Darkness, which has propelled Amyl to new levels of stardom and acclaim, and made them one of the hottest rock bands of the moment. Their latest Nashville stop- which comes a few years after last headlining Brooklyn Bowl, and, before that Springwater Supper Club (eternally jealous to anyone cool enough to have caught that one), and, appropriately, just days after AC/DC brought their epic stadium tour to town (rock fans have been eating good this week)- proved just why the band have been resonating so much lately, and why they deserve every bit of hype. Read on for our full review of the wild rock and roll spectacle!

Arriving just as the show was about to kick off, I was met with an absolutely massive early crowd (a rarity for Nashville, even for sold out shows), piled in and amped up for the performance to come. It was a pretty wide range of people, from old school rockers to punks, new fans and diehards, young and old. I, admittedly, got onto the Amyl and the Sniffers train a little late, and this was my first time seeing them, which seemed to be the case for a not insignificant portion of the audience. First up was Philadelphia’s Sheer Mag, a band I’ve caught a couple times before and always enjoy. No strangers to Nashville, the band have particularly played The Blue Room a lot, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that they had inked a deal with Third Man ahead of last year’s Playing Favorites. Led by fiery and commanding vocalist Christina Halladay, Sheer Mag play a sort of thumping, timeless, no-BS style of rock, teetering the line between hard rock, power pop, glam, garage rock, and punk, at once indebted to the sounds of the 70s but also still at home in the contemporary scene. Their performance was brief but powerful, doing exactly what all good openers do: bringing the crowd alive, and setting the stage for the evening’s headliners. Halladay and her bandmates play with a really effective precision, giving an air of punk rock unpredictability at times, while also keeping their set moving with a propulsive hypnotism. It would be hard to any band to open for the dazzling live show that is Amyl, but Sheer Mag held their own and were a blast as always!

It wouldn’t be long until Amyl and the Sniffers emerged, as the crowd packed in and buzzed with anticipation, still reeling from the high of Sheer Mag’s preceding performance. As though shot from a canon, Amy Taylor and co. took the stage and erupted into fanatic punk tune “Control,” which would set the tone for the rest of the night. Amyl aren’t strictly a punk band, per se, but they’re a band with a lot of punk spirit, both in their ferocious, over-the-top performance style and in their beliefs, which they use their platform to voice as much as possible (even before they took the stage, a message displayed on screen proclaiming the band’s inclusivity and desire to keep the show a safe space). Rounded out by guitarist Declan Mehrtens, bassist Gus Romer, and drummer Bryce Wilson, the Aussies strongly conjure ’70s punk greats like The Stooges and The Damned, as well as fellow Aussies AC/DC (whose own sound has roots in the classic pub rock that also has a lot in common with Amyl). They never veer into full-on novelty act or stuck in the past though, thanks to their scrappy, timeless riffs and thoroughly contemporary thematic focus. Taylor is, of course, the band’s core, and she feels like a once-in-a-generation frontwoman; supremely talented, charismatic, outspoken, and absolutely wild on stage, commanding the crowd with a confidence, dynamism, and rock and roll might few vocalists are capable of.

Though half the set was made up of new tunes from Cartoon Darkness– as expected- plenty of other favorites made the cut as well. From that rip-roaring opening with “Control,” the band veered to chat-along “Security,” and frenetic punk “Freaks to the Front,” before finally getting to the new stuff with fist-pumping and anthemic “Doing in Me Head.” Some other high points included the more mid-tempo and hooky “Chewing Gum,” the hardcore punk-leaning shredder “It’s Mine,” and biting post-punk jam “Me and the Girls,” during which Sheer Mag’s Christina Halladay reemerged to sing along. Throughout the show, Amy frequently used her platform to make jokes (I’m sure I missed some good ones- and some vulgar ones- due to her thick Australian accent), tell stories, and make quips, but, more importantly, to advocate for political change in America, and to prop up the queer, trans, and drag community, especially noting Nashville’s drag scene, and mentioning how her stage look (for this show, loose blonde girls, thick makeup, and a rhinestone bikini) wouldn’t exist without them. Using her style and expression of femininity as an tool of empowerment, rather than an object of male gaze, Taylor really is a thoughtful and fiercely individual performer and songwriter, and feels so wholly authentic in how she expresses herself, as though no outlet could better suit her than rock. And its that authenticity- which extends to the whole band- that makes Amyl and the Sniffers feel so special and important, and, again, fully deserving of all of the praise and hype heaped on them over the last few years.

Nearing the end of the night, things really kicked up during the last few tunes, with recently-viral, delightful vulgar single “Jerkin'” prompting an eruption of singalongs (and perhaps the most crowdsurfing I saw all night), following by “Tiny Bikini,” which feels like something of a companion song thematically, both addressing objectification from different ends. Hypnotic hard rock banger “U Should Not Be Doing That,” perhaps their best-known song, and buzzy and high-energy “Hertz” closed the set, but, of course, the rockers returned for an encore, leaving the audience for good with the same punk spirit that began the show, closing out with another older, faster, fan-favorite, “GFY” (a.k.a. “Go Fuck Yourself”). It feels fitting that the show began and ended with the band’s most wild punk side, as that feels like Amyl and the Sniffers at their core essence. The group’s delightfully chameleonic nature is part of what makes them so interesting though, and it’s remarkable how varied and balanced this show felt, from a band with just three albums. I can’t believe it took me this long to finally wise up and see Amyl and the Sniffers live, but I can confidently say I am 100% in now, and I can’t wait to see what they do next. The rock scene desperately needs them.

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All photos by Mary-Beth Blankenship