The Last Dinner Party are a band who’s meteoric rise has been well charted: on the day of the show in Leeds’ legendary Brudenell Social Club the album had just hit number one and there was palpable electricity in the room.
The band are on early, and they take to a stage furnished with a selection of chairs and acoustics, for an intimate set of stripped-down tunes. It’s the last show of the in-store run, and the energy amongst the band is transmitted to the audience: we start with ‘Beautiful Boy’, which in its stripped-down form is quite beautiful, and the band play to pin-drop silence.
‘On Your Side’ is another wonderful moment, as is ‘Portrait of A Dead Girl’: the more sensitive moments from Prelude are superb, and they give frontwoman, Abigail Morris space to utterly soar in her vocal work. Everything about this band, in this room is second to none in quality: they revel in a monumental level of hype and praise, but the sheer quality on display here vindicates every single press superlative.
A fantastic cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ follows, which suits Morris’ vocals to a tee. ‘Sinner’ is furnished with an extended intro, which never made it to the final cut, and once more the stripped down version is a delight to behold. The track suffers somewhat without the rockier, guitar parts (the same goes for ‘Mirror’ which in it’s acoustic state loses the guitar solo), but nonetheless there is a distinct energy at play here: it feels like the last time this band will ever play rooms like this in the UK.
