Tonight feels like an old-school night. The area around the O2 Academy is buzzing, there’s a guy selling dodgy shirts for cash or card (new school), and The Laurieston is mobbed. There is such an air of expectation and excitement… as if people need tonight… need bands to fight back and have a voice where the solitary individual doesn’t.

Amyl and the Sniffers come on stage to chants of ‘Fuck Trump,’ and Amy is smiling from ear to ear, letting out a feral call to arms. Eyeing up the crowd, she probably realises that the night is already theirs. It feels like a homecoming gig… buckle up… the touch paper is lit.

As they launch into ‘Doing My Head In,’ Amy thrashes around the stage, and the boys deliver a sonic assault that is so much heavier than could’ve been imagined years ago. Gone are the DIY, sub-2-minute pure punk slices of ‘Stole My Bike…’; the band have grown and matured into one of the most vital and important bands around. They are now so musically accomplished that even the older songs are thunderous, where before they might have just been angry. Think less Ramones… less CBGB… think more Fast Eddie.

The fact that they have been flatmates in the past and friends for such a long time is evident. Their ease on stage is heartwarming. With plenty of banter and joking… Buckfast is drunk, Gus is advised not to go running despite wearing a Jamaican football team tracksuit, and it’s fairly obvious that the party is going to continue at Sleazy’s.

Songs from the new album feature heavily in tonight’s set. ‘Security’s’ and ‘Guided by Angels’ become crowd sing-alongs, yet it is the beautifully slow-tempo ‘Big Dreams’ that provides one of the most touching moments of the evening. A sheer delight. Normal service is soon resumed as the band launch into a hard-hitting ‘It’s Mine’ and the classic ‘Got You.’

‘Tiny Bikini,’ ‘Me and the Boys,’ and ‘You Shouldn’t Be Doing That’ are such gems. Simple lyrics dealing with the complexities of the modern world. Everyone can relate and appreciate.

The night concludes with the surprising inclusion of 2017’s ‘Balaclava Boogie’ and the mind-blowing ‘GFY.’

Tonight saw the band at the top of their game, so far from home (Oz) but adored as if they were ours.

This may have been the worst of days for some, but it was the best of nights for all.m inside the hallowed walls of Glasgows O2 Academy.

The tour continues, with the band going on to play three nights at the Roundhouse in London… the place where Patti Smith famously said, ‘I haven’t fucked much with the past, but I’ve fucked plenty with the future.’ In Glasgow, Amy reassures us that the ‘future is not written in stone.’ Sometimes the best forms of defence are attack.

Words: CACH

Photots: Chris Hogge