Artist of the week: Ssssnakes
Last weekend I had the pleasure of experiencing elusive Swansea punk legends Ssssnakes at the Langland Loco fundraiser at Cinema & Co - and I wasn’t disappointed! As a band that I’ve been following since their first release Kissss Thisss in 2011 I was super excited and wondered if they were able to match the energy on their studio recordings live on stage. They were able to multiply this energy by 100 on stage. It was insane.
You couldn’t take your eyes off them - however this may be due to bassist Rhys’ magnificent outfit consisting of the finest crop top, cowboy boots, cowboy hat, hot pants & neckerchief. Their first time live as a band in Swansea for a while, you could tell that the crowd were super excited - multiple cries of “WE WANT SSSSNAKES” over the raffle that preceded their set.
Their set started with (and maintained) this crazy energy - the crowd going mental and finished with front man Jamie diving into the drummer to finish. Definitely one of the best shows I’ve seen in Swansea.
For those of you that haven’t listened to or even heard of Ssssnakes, they are (in their own words) : “a band that sing songs about girls, skateboards, friends and sticking it to the man.”
Their first release “Kissss Thisss” (2011) opens with “Don’t Tread on Us” - a powerful punk rock banger. I remember one of the first tunes I heard on the album was the 9 second “Donald Trump” - written back in 2011 - I guess they had some sort of premonition of things to come with the lyrics: “Think Big! Kick Ass! … Donald Trump”. The track “Ssssnake or Die” is a personal favourite off the album - everything you want in an angry punk tune.
Their latest release, EP “Love Eggssss” (2017) continues where the Ssssnakes left off and maintains their reputation as one of the finest punk bands Swansea has produced. Cabello is a personal favourite off this one. Check it out.
If you get the chance to see Ssssnakes, do it - and when you do, buy them a beer. You definitely won’t be disappointed. They’ve played two mega shows in the last week in Swansea - The Langland Loco last Saturday at Cinema & Co and a super secret punk show above Broadside Tattoo (which I was gutted to miss - it looked wicked).
We approached Rhys from Ssssnakes for a comment on being Swansea Music Hub’s artist of the week, he replied:
“Ssssnakes rule, buy me a beer”
Ssssnakes Bandcamp | Ssssnakes Facebook | Ssssnakes Spotify
Written by Simon Parton