The Last Dinner Party are ready to bring big sounds to big rooms, are we?
Let’s be clear, Cardiff’s Utilita Arena is by no stretch a fair metric by which a band’s ability to play arenas should be measured. Outdated, confused and acoustically inadequate, I’ve come to realise over the years that it takes a truly seismic sound to shake this old antique to its core. Unsurprisingly, The Last Dinner Party were the band that provided it.
Amidst the mania of their debut album campaign, they have mastered the art of performative drama. But, crucially they’ve earned it. Because whenever you step foot on an arena floor, excitedly awaiting the arrival of an artist, a natural atmosphere of dramatic energy begins to surface, given the size and anticipation of these shows.
The Last Dinner Party treats that pressure as a privilege. Curating every detail of their stage design, setlist and choreography, they’ve managed to craft a live show that blurs the line between a Shakespearean play, musical theatre and 1970s rock and roll. A blended approach made possible by a lineup of musicians who are not only multi-instrumentalists themselves, but artists exercising their own charisma within one unified lineup.
A dichotomy displayed best on their new opening and part closing track, ‘Agnus Dei’. The very minute I heard the recording, I could picture the grandeur of its live adaptation, and it didn’t disappoint. It showcases the band firing on all cylinders and allows the otherwise uninitiated to be introduced to one of the band’s most important and awe-inspiring aspects: Emily Roberts.
When it’s time for the solo she’s been simmering for the previous three minutes, she steps onto the elevated stage at the back and lets rip in Brian May fashion, cutting the ribbon on an evening of opulent rock.
Throughout the night, the band fluttered through their biggest hits, from both records and shared vocal duties on that very stage, Roberts debuted in the opening song. By doing so, they subtly do away with antiquated ideas of artist egotism and show that together this band are redesigning the idea of being individual superstars under a band name.
Nevertheless, it is hard to take your eyes off Abigail Morris through the show, who is really a masterful performer. In fact, it’s hard to discern whether her style is effortless or engineered. Because her languid movements are all indicative of an artist with natural-born star power, feeling the power of every single moment and gliding around the stage with natural ease.
But then, she punctuates those with on-beat winks or hand flicks, which both elevate and highlight the textural flecks that their music is absolutely jam-packed with. Moreover, she understands the importance of silhouettes on stage. When she recedes into the back of the stage during moments of performative rest, her shadows move with a rhythmic, authoritative and inspiring presence that only a few performers in history could master.
Everything throughout her performance has intent, but none of it is contrived, and she’s quite quickly becoming, if not has already become, an icon.
I’ve said before that I believe this band will have a leading role to play in the next decade of music, if not becoming the most important band of that time period. Now with the second album released and an incredible live show to accompany it, it’s on us to now be ready for it. Because while there were a few sparse spots in the crowd from the leftover tickets of this arena-sized venue, they made sure to fill it out with their sound and performance.
