SNAYX - Strange Brew - 16th February 2023

Hulking figures and co-frontmen Charlie and Ollie are the kind of boys you might not, on first impression, want to bring home to mum.

They’re all hard shoulders and jutting chins; tight-lipped and aggressive. Built more like boxers than singers - and dressed almost exclusively in Fred Perry - their riotous energy feels both intoxicating and delinquent. We dance on the knife-edge of what they decide to do next. What they’ve chosen, it seems, is to make it big.

On their song, ‘Cigarette’, they spit the words out like they’re chewing tobacco. They fix their eyes on strangers in the crowd as if they’re squaring up to fight; the taste their performance leaves behind is addictive.

They may have played as the support for Kid Kapichi and Panic Shack in the last few weeks alone, but just a drag of SNAYX isn’t enough. It’s only a matter of time until they outgrow the role of warm-up and burn venues down to the ground with their own matches.

A socialist band in the same vein as Bristol punk project IDLES, the audience separates into mosh pits that are as tight as corks in bottles, and just as explosive at breaking point.

Their delivery and musical style draw fans of slowthai in as their own; those counting down the days for the rapper’s post-punk album UGLY can find a second home here. They seem to lean into the similarity by performing ‘doorman’ – thai’s most iconic song – but it is a moment made all their own.

The air is tattooed from the pressure of their noise.