“You are cordially invited,” reads The Last Dinner Party’s Instagram bio. It’s a statement that makes the band appear to be more than a band: they are an event, an aesthetic, a community. But it’s difficult to see to what extent they are more than a band until you see them live. Their fans understand this, as people clad in flowing white shirts, long, Victorian-inspired skirts and an assortment of vintage jewelry flood into Birmingham’s Hare & Hounds.
So when the show starts and the solemn instrumental introductory track starts playing and the room goes dark, murmurs of excitement ripple through the crowd as the band silently make their way onstage. They are dressed similarly to the crowd: dainty dresses, astonishingly high-heeled boots, and immaculately-styled hair. Assuming their positions and brandishng their instruments, they start.
‘Burn Alive’, a brooding, haunting, twinkling guitar track track opens the set. But whereas most crowds would sing along to the songs’ every word, these fans stay silent. The reason? Despite having sold out the venue’s main room; having their first single, ‘Nothing Matters’ amass an astonishing five million listens on Spotify in mere months; and most recently, played Glastonbury, the band have only released two songs. Having gone viral on Twitter earlier this year for being accused of being so-called ‘industry plants’, a term applied to the ‘nepo babies’ of the music industry, the band set out to prove that not only are they not industry plants, but that they deserve every ounce of attention they are receiving.
But despite almost every song on the set being unreleased, this does not stop the lead-singer Abigail Morris from giving it her all, and the crowd from giving everything back. Jaw-dropped faces litter the room as eyes are fixed on her. Alternating between strutting and prancing around the stage (a stage that barely fits the five-piece band, may I add), she undoubtedly steals the show, her lustful, deep vocals ricocheting off the venue’s walls, leaving a deep impression in their wake. She has an air of Kate Bush or Florence + The Machine to her stage presence, but Morris makes her performance her own,
Acting out lyrics and making piercing eye contact with the audience. It is feminine, powerful, energetic, and most notably, original. There are no other bands quite like The Last Dinner Party at the moment.
But the band’s appeal lies far beyond their visuals. Charged with catchy choruses and gripping baselines and hooks, their accessible baroque, 80s pop-inspired alt-rock sound is a breath of fresh air in a musical landscape that can often feel monotonous and unexciting. As opener Nell Mescal put it, “you will leave this show singing songs that haven’t even been released yet.”
‘Portrait of a Dead Girl’ is an example of this. Like much of their discography, it is theatrical, brooding, and sensual, and it is impossible not to sway your hips too. Another standout is ‘Beautiful Boy’, a melodramatic and operatic solemn piano-and-flute led track. Their closer, ‘Lady of Mercy’, is a cacophony of clapping and toe-tapping beats, set to a roaring riff. It is frivolous, eccentric and exciting, with the band’s two guitarists, Lizzie Mayland and Emily Roberts, making the track textured and rich.
As the show goes on, Morris becomes more and more engrossed in her performance up until the final songs (which include, of course, ‘Nothing Matters’), where she breaks the fourth wall, so to speak. Jumping into the tightly-packed crowd, making piercing eye contact with fans, clutching onto them and singing to them, she becomes the all-powerful leader to the cult she has built during their hour-long set.
As if it wasn’t clear from the hype the band have generated online, by the end of the show, it is clear—the band are destined for greatness. People leave the venue, and one singular question lingers on everyone’s lips: Where is the album? So when the band eventually release thd album and thus inevitably become pioneers of the alternative music scene, one thing is for certain: you, too, will be cordially invited.
Review and photos by Sophie Flint – No use without permission.
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