LIVE REVIEW: Amyl And The Sniffers, Cable Ties, O2 Academy, Edinburgh, 23/08/2023
Photo Credit: Andy Davies
August is always a nice time to come through to Edinburgh for a gig, with the International Festival providing some extra entertainment. This was our first time attending the O2 Academy in Edinburgh, which is in the Slateford area, a few miles from the city centre. And what a night it was!
Cable Ties took to the stage right on 8pm to kick of a very lively night of music. The three-piece band are from Melbourne, Australia and are made up of Jenny McKenchie on vocals/guitar, Nick Brown on bass and Shauna Boyle on drums. The room would have been over half full at this point, as lead singer McKenchie and drummer Boyle shared the vocal responsibilities as they worked their way through a set of ten songs, each one being appreciated by the ever-swelling crowd. Cable Ties released an album in June 2023 (All Her Plans) and they played most of the tracks from that album, including the opening song Crashing Through, Perfect Client, Time For You, Too Late and Thought’s Back. 8/10
Amyl and the Sniffers toured the UK late in 2022 as well as appearing at Glastonbury the same year with great reviews from wherever they played. They are appearing at loads of festivals this summer and play at Victorious Festival in Portsmouth this weekend. They sold out Fat Sam’s in Dundee the night before the Edinburgh gig and tonight’s gig wasn’t far off sold out either. The four-piece band formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2016 and are Amy Taylor on vocals, Dec Martens on guitar, Gus Romer on bass and Bryce Wilson on drums.
Taylor is someone that can easily connect with her audience which she did from the first song Control. The energy emanating from the stage towards the crowd was insane with Taylor commanding the full stage which the fans loved and showed their love of the bands by singing every word back to her and mosh pits opening up all over the arena. Freaks to the Front was next up, a relatively short song but it went down a storm. The set continued with songs from their 2021 released album Comfort To Me. The atmosphere is the o2 was absolutely electrifying, this is a band that knows how to work a crowd for sure. They saved one of their most popular songs Knifey until the end of the night, but what a song to end the night it was. They played around one hour and twenty minutes on stage and seventeen songs. They now have a few more festivals commitments before heading back home to Australia to play some show at the end of the year. 10/10
Written By: Alan Brown
Photo Credit: Andy Davies
