Amyl and the Sniffers take on the world: ‘If you don’t like us, then that’s on you’

‘Balls-to-the-wall punk’: Amy Taylor, lead singer of high-voltage pub-rock band Amyl and the Sniffers. Photograph: Charlie Kinross/The Guardian

It’s 10pm on a Saturday night in Melbourne and the crowd at the Croxton is getting restless. Burly men in flannels, young women of colour, teenagers double-fisting beers, people with purple hair or grey – all are waiting for the same thing.

The lights dim and the crowd roars. Four figures stumble on to the stage to Fatman Scoop’s Be Faithful. A woman in a halter top, short-shorts and cowboy boots bounds to the microphone. “What the fuck’s up?” she yells. “If anyone falls down, you help them up. Don’t touch anyone. Let’s get rowdy!”