The Last Dinner Party review: ‘An exhilarating spectacle of rock’
From engaging a sold-out Aviva Studios with their entertaining dance class skit to suggesting unexpected drink combinations and raising awareness over the rise of food bank usage in the United Kingdom, The Last Dinner Party wowed a sold-out Aviva Studios with their impressive rock chops and candour as the five-piece brought the pyre to Manchester.
Since gracing the O2 Victoria Warehouse stage for two shows in the city last autumn, The Last Dinner Party are a band who have continued their steady ascent since, releasing their second studio album, ‘From The Pyre’, earlier this year and embarking on their biggest tour yet, and based on their performance at Aviva Studios, they look destined to become a fully-fledged arena-headlining band in the future.
The five-piece kicked off the performance in a relatively laid-back manner with the goth-pop ‘Agnus Dei’, a rendition which came to an abrupt halt midway through as a result of a crowd emergency. “Thank you very much for waiting. This happens sometimes,” frontwoman Abigail Morris declared, and it was very much worth the wait. In the form The Last Dinner Party were in, not even a pause could deny them as they restarted the track before following it up with a pulsating performance of ‘Count The Ways’ fuelled by punchy, distorted guitars and a flawless driving bass line from Georgia Davies.
“Welcome to the pyre, Manchester,” Morris stated to a deafening reception as the band kicked into second gear with a trio of hits from their debut studio album, ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’, in the spine-tingling, Florence + The Machine-esque ‘The Feminine Urge’, the rollercoaster ride of ‘Caesar on a TV Screen’ and ‘On Your Side’ before a “gentle one” in ‘On Your Side’ with Aurora Nishevci’s delicate keys and the smooth guitar parts of Emily Roberts and Lizzie Mayland, an undoubted standout from the track.
Throughout the performance, each band member had the opportunity to shine from the individual standpoint, with Nishevci expressing her fondness for the Kneecap movie and highlighting how she felt “ashamed not knowing her mother’s tongue” before taking over lead vocals on ‘Gjuha’. Mayland took centre stage and fittingly nailed a rendition of ‘Rifle’ to perfection, Roberts frequently soloed and stunned the audience whilst doing so, and Davies’ stunning piece of narration was the highlight on the unreleased ‘Big Dog’.
The five-piece closed out the main part of the set with the raucous singalongs of the fan-favourite ‘Nothing Matters’, setting the tone for an enthralling encore, which saw Morris and Nishevci pull off their entertaining dance class skit during a spine-tingling rendition of ‘This Is The Killer Speaking’ before closing out their exhilarating spectacle of rock with a reprisal of ‘Agnus Dei’, which saw the five-piece personally thank their team and crew for their contributions to the tour. In the end, The Last Dinner Party aren’t a band who need pyro, confetti or visuals to impress; they are a band who’ll wow you with the musical talent at their disposal and one completely capable of putting on an arena-rock spectacle in the future.