It was a bit of a mild panic on Saturday afternoon when we realised The Last Dinner Party’s out-of-store “in-store” album launch at The Caves, courtesy of Assai Records, was a 6pm start with doors open at 5pm and not the regular 8/9ish kick off I’d expected. As we re-arranged our meet-up forward a few hours (DJ Gez, Slash Vaseline and me) needn’t have rushed too much. By the time we arrived, the queue to get in was stretched around the block with more dedicated fans (maybe a hundred plus at that point?) keen to get in early, queueing patiently outside. The sensible thing to do we decided, was head across the road for a few drinks in Bannermans Bar, which is another excellent Edinburgh music venue, to watch and wait for the queue to shuffle forward.
As expected, when we did get in the place was packed, but as a venue The Caves has about the best acoustics of any in Edinburgh so it doesn’t really matter where you stand for the show, you’re guaranteed to get a great sound anywhere. If I’m ever swithering over getting tickets for a gig or not (yes, it does occasionally happen) if its at The Caves, that’s usually going to swing it’.
Last Dinner Party's set was excellent. Short and sharp at around 45 minutes, but as an album launch that was expected and a pleasant surprise that it was an acoustic one which meant we were treated to variations of familiar and new tracks as well as a great cover of Wicked Game - that could’ve been written specifically for them. I think with the acoustic set up and the venue, the harmonies between band members really came across really well, showing off their talents even more than comes through on recordings. None more so than Nothing Matters. That was a superb finale.
The crowd went wild at every opportunity to show the band their appreciation and on this performance, it’s clear to see that while they’re relatively early in their career, The Last Dinner Party are going on to much bigger things very quickly. As Radio 1’s Sound of 2024 winners you don’t need me to tell you that, but I did notice that they announced a series of September dates a few days before this gig, including Glasgow’s 2,500 capacity O2 Academy. When I checked on Sunday for tickets they’d sold it out and also announced a second date too.
Post-gig, SV, Gez, Mike Mystery, Mrs Mystery and a few of Edinburgh’s Gigeratti regulars headed back to Bannerman’s where DJ Gez’s snazzy purple paisley shirt was the centre of attention for a while. We were also treated to it’s origin-story, having been bought to be worn on a primetime Saturday night BBC TV music quiz show appearance, which sadly never happened due to Covid lockdown and their spot being cancelled. The show did go on though, just not with Gez and his quiz partner because they were from different households and against Lockdown rules at the time, which is a shame as I know Gez & teammate are both musical encyclopaedias and would’ve aced it for sure. The night was rounded off in Edinburgh’s top goth nightspot, Banshee Labyrinth, where The Mystery’s and I plotted future charity gigs (watch this space!), possible tours of Asia for Indie bands (as they have years of experience in this), and inappropriate Easter party fancy dress outfits - the recent AI deep-fake of the Pope in Balenciaga definitely being one I was told.
A different, but entertaining evening and definitely not the last Last Dinner Party show I’ll be going to. If you've not already, join the Sinners and go see the Last Dinner Party.
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