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Live review: Cosmic Psychos and Good Sniff at Downstairs at The Dome, Friday, April 10 2026
By STEVE MASCORD
I’M OLD enough to have got review copies of Cosmic Psychos’ first few albums but young enough for them to have gone straight over my head.
The most remarkable thing about the Victorian punks to 18-year-old me in 1987 is that they had an expletive-ridden song about David Lee Roth, called “David Lee Roth”. It was not enough for me to be more interested in them than I was in David Lee Roth.
Those who were interested in them went on to form the bands that gave us grunge. I could not have founded Mudhoney, unfortunately.
I’m now 57 and I am going to see Cosmic Psychos live for the first time – in London, of all places. You just never know where life is gonna take you.
Good Sniff are a couple of kids from Australia who’ve never toured overseas. Drummer/vocalist Lachie Brown would later be described by CS guitarist John McLeering as “octopus arms” and he’s not wrong – Brown is a phenomenal musician.
He is joined by bassist/backing vocalist Elias Hudson and it’s a White Stripes/VirginMarys setup that’s full of energy and youthful exuberance. They’ve got some fans down the front in their merch and everyone’s having a good time.
After almost 40 years, I didn’t know what to expect from seeing CS live. Were they going to play at a hundred miles and hour? Would I be stabbed by someone’s mohawk during the course of the evening? Punk shows in London are serious events…
But when Ross Knight McKeering and touring drummer BC Michaels wander on stage with beers at the ready, any apprehension evaporates. With unkempt guitar strings protruding in all directions and his mouth agape, McKeering is a pot bellied guitar hero sometimes who plays like Slash – one handed as he points to audience members with the other. Appearance wise, think Rockin’ Rob Riley without the hair.
The songs are just fun and you can immediately see where the likes of The Chats got this stuff from: “Nice Day To Go To The Pub”, “Toothbrush”, “I Like Beer”, “Fuckwit City” and – of course – “David Lee Roth”.
A mosh pit forms to my left and there are kids in their teens right up to people in their sixties in the sold-out room., which is out the back of a pub called The Boston Arms. The group closest to me are speaking Italian. And even the videos don’t really do the performance justice in terms of just how rock’n’roll it is, in its purest form. Loud guitars, pummelling drums, repetitive choruses, mayhem.
Unfortunately for you, dear reader, I can’t help but find a broad brush narrative in just about anything I witness and in this case it’s the fact that – with respect to former and absent members, especially the late Robbie Watts – bands like Cosmic Psychos have the luxury of finding their real voice very late in their careers.
By not having any massive hits, by never wearing tight-fitting jeans and blow-drying their hair, they aren’t condemned in later life to trying to recapture something. They always tried to make you smile and jump around and now, they’re probably better at it than they ever were with age adding to the allure, not detracting from it.
In short, they can be judge merely on what they are – not what they are in comparison to what they were.
And what they are is bloody magnificent, nudging spectacular.
READ AND HEAR INTERVIEWS WITH DOZENS OF ARTISTS VIA OUR PATREON PAGE. EAVESDROP AS WE CHAT TO THE BIGGEST NAMES IN ROCK AND METAL – FROM 1987 TO THE PRESENT!
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