The Last Dinner Party have quickly built up a good reputation, even before they released their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy. Now that the record has finally been released, the band have embarked upon a small album release tour of intimate venues. I arrived at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds to see them perform last Sunday, and I was not disappointed!

By Jane Howkins

When I first saw The Last Dinner Party perform at Y Not Festival last year, I’d never heard of them. I came away enchanted, and I’m pleased to say that the band’s gig at the Brudenell Social Club was even better! It was great to see the girls perform in a smaller venue – it’s fair to say it’s probably the last time we’ll see them play a stage with a capacity of just 400 people.

With no support acts, the band took to the stage at an early time, announcing that they would be performing acoustic versions of some of the album tracks. It’s important to note that it was quite a short gig, coming in at around 45 minutes, but I still left feeling like I had witnessed something magical. Despite the acoustic nature of the show, the tracks sounded amazing in this new reimagined format.

Opening with Beautiful Boy, the band moved into one of my favourite songs – On Your Side. The pop ballad sounded absolutely haunting with the acoustic instrumentation, matched by vocalist Abigail’s strong voice. Recent single release Caesar on a TV Screen added a little more energy into the mix, followed by fan favourite Sinner, which featured the original introduction to the piece (which was unfortunately missed off the studio version).

A cover of Wicked Game by Chris Isaak was unexpected, but the girls pulled it off really well, before moving into final track Nothing Matters. The only real disappointment was the fact that, unlike some of the other shows on this tour, The Last Dinner Party did not carry out a signing beforehand. However, it’s clear that this band is here to stay, and I hope they’re still able to perform intimate gigs like this when the fame hits.