Amyl And The Sniffers feel invincible right now. Celebrating 10 years together, the Melbourne quartet are coming off their first Grammy nomination and an Australian tour with AC/DC. Oh, and their latest album scored four more ARIAs for their trophy room.
So what do they do for an encore? Release a country album and a live album in one fell swoop, with an unconventional concert movie to boot.
Truth Or Consequence is all of those things, but also Amyl to the core. It’s not really country, but it is a fun hang with the most distinctive Aussie band of the moment. If anything, it’s their version of a ’90s-era MTV Unplugged special, reimagining fan favourites alongside a cheeky cover and a couple of newies.
Shot last year at the Los Angeles institute El Coyote – just a few blocks down from Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema – the 50-minute film opens with a shot of whiskey perched atop a red stool, before we see guitarist Declan Mehrtens telling jokes to frontwoman Amy Taylor backstage as she applies makeup while wearing hair rollers.
Those little touches are key to establishing the intimacy here, with loose interviews and other behind-the-scenes footage interspersed between the 13 songs.
Lo and behold, the band look right at home in a kitschy Mexican eatery, playing to a small, loving crowd against multi-coloured lights and warm vintage décor. It helps that it’s John Angus Stewart behind the camera; a longtime Sniffers collaborator, he won an ARIA for the album cover of 2024’s Cartoon Darkness and has also been nominated for directing several of their videos over the years.
As Taylor, Mehrten, bassist Gus Romer, and drummer Bryce Wilson laugh and banter both on-stage and off, it’s easy to see how three of them graduated from housemates to bandmates a decade ago.
And what about the music? Exactly how country are we talking? Well, it’s a bit of a gradual transition, with opener Big Dreams playing more like rickety rockabilly.
Taylor notes that the song was criticised for being too slow in its original form, so it’s sped up to a twangy gallop. With Taylor being such an animated figure during live shows, it’s a novelty just seeing her sitting down for an entire set – not to mention gamely talk-singing with her raspy voice rather than belting out anthems at the top of her lungs.
Much of The Sniffers’ success comes down to Taylor’s giddy, gutsy verve, and that definitely comes through as she grins her way through the movie. Whether barking through an electronic bullhorn on Bailing On Me or rattling off a parade of insults on the drum-less Jerkin’, she is completely and confidently holding court.
Later songs like Facts and Caltex Cowgirl – the namesake of Taylor’s Instagram handle – are more classically country in flavour, with all four members singing together and Mehrten sneaking in tasty solos.
As for reinventing their own material, that’s a real through line across the 50 minutes. The brash Chewing Gum becomes dark and dirge-like, while the transformation-themed Snakes is sparse and jumpy in this incarnation.
Me & The Girls (Are Drunk At The Pig Farm) transposes the original’s airport bar to the titular farm setting, as Taylor leads a shit-talking singalong and does a whiskey shot just before the lyric about doing too many shots.
And an even swearier version of Don’t Need A Cunt (Like You To Love Me) is different enough to warrant a new name based on its new lyrics: Little Bit Punk, Little Bit Country.
Any number of country tunes could have worked as a cover at this gig – especially given the genre’s fondness for booze – but it’s telling that Taylor and the gang chose Lights On The Hill, a trucking song popularised by Aussie icon Slim Dusty. (No doubt part of the song’s appeal for them is that it’s told from beyond the grave.)
On the originals front, Fella is a winking love song that sounds like half shanty and half limerick, and Bag Of Cocaine incorporates the concert’s LA setting for a cautionary tale and crowd singalong.
As much as Taylor’s ratbag charisma suits the country treatment, Truth Or Consequence doesn’t play like the start of a new era for the band. It unspools more like a one-off lock-in at some unlikely bar, where we get to spend intimate time with these four people.
That should be exactly the vibe when the movie is screened around the world, followed by The Sniffers’ more traditional concert keepsake It Might Not Be Perfect, But It Is Mine.
This movie – and the accompanying soundtrack album, scheduled for release a week later – probably isn’t going to win Amyl And The Sniffers truckloads of new devotees. And curious country fans are likely to be baffled by Taylor’s rough, flippant vocal delivery.
But as an offbeat victory lap and a playful sidelong look at one of Australia’s most in-demand musical exports, this should work a treat for their established base.
Amyl And The Sniffers’ Truth Or Consequence will be released physically and digitally on September 4th, with pre-orders available now, and screening details available here.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
