Live: The Amazing Snakeheads

15th October

Sound Control

7/10

Start slow, end mad, stay heavy. Witnessing the unrelenting wall of sound echoing out throughout Sound Control, you can’t help but think of this as the informal mantra of The Amazing Snakeheads. The evening starts with Dale Barclay—frontman and only remaining original band member—swanning on stage half-naked, half-cocked and full of an almost sinister energy. The band launch into a drawn-out version of ‘Every Guy Wants To Be Her Baby’, only interrupting the constant industrial beat to reach for one of the variety of different beer, wine and spirit bottles littering the stage.

By song three, Barclay had grown tired of the formality of occupying the stage and leapt over the front barrier, with a mic stand in tow. The crowd parted to allow him room to maneuver and enjoy the sight of him gurning harder than a fresher at their first Warehouse Project. The simplistic riffs and beats are not great feats of technical musical ability but that is not what makes this band. It is through the energetic and occasionally aggressive stance of the Glaswegian frontman that the band gains it’s defining and down right entertaining sound. Having recently signed to Domino records—a label famous for bringing bands such as the Arctic Monkeys to the forefront of the British music scene—the trio certainly have the musical pedigree to go on to be greats. This seems evident from their comfortable stance on stage, but it is certainly confidence, not arrogance, that fuels this band.

After blasting through the vast majority of debut album Amphetamine Ballads the band finish their set with an extended version of their 65-second debut single ‘Testifying Time’. Drawing heavily from the punk side of their psychedelic punk sound the crowd is left agitated and enthralled. Who said punk is dead?