It was a dark and stormy night outside Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange, nestled between a big Aldi and a bigger Asda, as the crowds of primarily lace-wearing young people gathered for a performance of grand, baroque, loud indie pop-slash-rock.
The Last Dinner Party return to Scotland following the release of their second album, From the Pyre: in keeping with their debut, the music is big and dramatic and full of mythical and literary references to slaughtered lambs, scythes, and dying for love. However, there is a slight smattering of modern parlance that was less present on Prelude to Ecstasy: the occasional lyric about “being down so bad,” or “LED lights”.
Supporting TLDP tonight is Imogen and the Knife, a Geordie vocalist-songwriter-pianist who has been steadily releasing the best music you’ve ever heard since last year. Taking to the stage in the state-issued tartan outfit for any artist making their Scottish stage debut, she performs heartwrencher ‘Paris Night’— a piercing piano ballad penned for the love of little sisters everywhere. Her voice is outstanding, so sharp and moving and expressive: “can we stay in this bedsit for two?” delivered in such a way as to make one (me) cry (instantly, and quite a lot).
Alas, she must stop performing by virtue of being “the support act”, and we eagerly await the arrival of England’s most flareful female and non-binary band. The Last Dinner Party begin, obviously, with ‘Agnes Dei’ (Latin for ‘Lamb of God’): immediately, the audience is blasted with Stage Presence 3000. My plus one announced it “the best live performance of any song I’ve ever seen” and she’s seen Meghan Trainor live (BBC Radio One’s Big Weekend, 2016).
As an aside, lead vocalist Abigail is wearing the most beautiful dress in the world. Like a lady Beetlejuice, it’s black and white striped and tiered in such a way as to fall like a waterfall—perfect swishing ability for the band’s twirl-and-swish brand of rock.
But the MUSIC! Wow, the music. “The Feminine Urge”, a particular fan favourite, truly comes into its own on the stage: the mass scream-along to “Do you feel like a man, when I CAN’T TALK BACK?” splices you in half and creates a real solidarity amongst the predominantly femme audience.
We are then interrupted for genuinely about 5 minutes, as Abigail sails down into the audience to draw a lamb for a fan’s first ever tattoo. “How far along are we?”, she asks the band upon her return to stage.
“We’re only four songs in”, replies Georgia.
“Fuck”
The set slightly lags in the last third, as old favourites (‘old’ in the context of TLDP, meaning from 2023) are withheld for slightly too long. However, moments of slowness are still appreciated amongst the bashing bombasticism of virtually their entire discography: “Sail Away” is stripped back and beautiful, with Abigail’s voice clear and isolated as she sits upon some sort of elevated moss thing and gazes out at the crowd.
It lulls the audience into enough of a daze to really thwack them with the best song of all, ‘Sinner’. Performed with an elongated intro, ‘Sinner’ is a masterful banger on the trials and tribulations of being Catholic: you have to move to the beat or it’ll make you think too hard.
Towards the end of the set is then THE Last Dinner Party song, the stratospherically successful ‘Nothing Matters’—the kind of track so unbelievably huge as to attract the nepo-baby-industry-plant accusers in their droves. What an honour! It’s a true thrill to hear live: the magnificence of that “da da da” during the bridge, the joyful nihilism of the chorus, the operatic quality of Abigail’s voice. This music really is perfect.
‘This is the Killer Speaking’ finishes the night’s performance, as we’re taught the accompanying dance routine by the band (TikTok potential? Probably not). It has immense hum along ability and every “ah-ah-ah-ah” hits hard as fuck… here comes the killer! Here comes your girl! And here’s to The Last Dinner Party!
Image Credit to Tamsin Dunlop
