Live Review: The Last Dinner Party - O2 Brixton Academy, London 08/12/2025
From the Pyre, Nothing Matters: In a night of glorious drama, The Last Dinner Party showed Brixton why they’re one the UK’s best live acts.
Still riding high from the success of their number one debut album Prelude to Ecstasy last year, The Last Dinner Party entered 2025 not to rest on their laurels, but to instead shape their sophomore album into something equally, or arguably even more ambitious than Prelude. In March their rise was crystallized in their BRIT award for best new artist, having taken home the rising star award the year before. The July announcement of From the Pyre, along with the release of the jaunty and dramatic lead single ‘This Is the Killer Speaking’, signalled a hungry young band yet one still motivated by genuine, palpable fun, not the weight of their growing success.
A few singles and music videos later, the time had come for the five-part London band to traverse the hills, valleys and shires across the UK and Ireland in celebration of their flaming-hot sophomore release The Pyre. Combining a slew of record store dates with some of the largest headline shows they’ve ever played before, their winter pilgrimage came to an end with two nights at Brixton Academy, the latter of which I was lucky enough to attend. As lead singer Abigail Morris brought up as the night grew older, one of The Last Dinner Party’s first shows four years ago was just down the road at The Windmill, Brixton’s most hallowed music haunt, and here they were now, selling out two nights at the legendary Brixton Academy.
First onstage that evening was the particularly impressive Imogen and the Knife, a Newcastle-born singer and songwriter with a taste for the orchestral and the raw, and with an exquisite singing voice. She danced and swayed onstage as swirling patterns of light danced along too; it wasn’t long before she’d won over the crowd with her relatable storytelling and genre-blending tracks. Onstage she was joined with more than the typical instrumental accompaniments, with a brass section of Evan Abel on baritone saxophone and Jack Banjo Courtney on trumpet and flugelhorn, both punctuating some tracks with grandiosity, and tinging others with melancholy.
“I have a little gift for you”, Imogen teases, and brings out Lizzie Maynard of The Last Dinner Party to perform ‘Mother Mother’, a track from Maynard’s debut solo EP, which Imogen produced. Over sparse acoustic guitar and piano the pair wove beautiful harmonies between their intertwining voices, which sang of kneading bread in beautiful metaphors for love, loss and change: “But mother, I can’t get this love to rise / Think I’m too cold”. After gaudy cheers, Imogen took a moment to speak with the audience and raise awareness for the 33 political prisoners, seven on hunger strike, currently held without bail for their direct action against the UK facility of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems last year.
“As artists we really reflect the world we live in, and by nature we stand up for freedom of expression… I also feel strongly that we have a duty to amplify silenced voices that aren’t afraid to stand up for what they believe in”
Imogen’s set came to an energetic end with ‘Mother of God’ followed by the sanguine ‘Blood Bag’, a menacing anthem where the blaring brass elements felt like a reckoning was nigh. This brooding energy collapsed as the stage and backdrop slowly was taken over by crimson, and cacophony ensued. With a notable performative flair and similarly vast musical palette to the headline act, it wasn’t hyperbole when Abigail later celebrated Imogen’s brilliance by commenting that many of us had found our new favourite artist that night. And isn’t that what support acts are for?
Brixton’s Academy was the perfect setting for The Last Dinner Party’s largest headline shows ever: its ornate pillars, arches and alcoves blended seamlessly from venue to stage, which was draped in white fabric. The slightly mystical mix of classical and earthly that characterises The Last Dinner Party’s aesthetic was hence a physical ever-present as well as a musical one, and the expansive room felt like it hummed and shone just for us. An array of swallows and swifts hung above the stage, an avian chandelier of spring. Faux shrubbery onstage mirrored the taller model trees that climbed to the roof of the venue on each side of the circle. Vine-clad towers on both sides of the stage bathed in a menacing orange-red hue, also casting the many classical statues lining the venue’s walls in dark shadow. A smoky haze hung in the air, a premonition of the fires to come.
As the lights dimmed and the birds’ shimmering reflections were cast onto the ruffled white backdrop, The Last Dinner Party sauntered on stage for their sultry opener ‘Agnus Dei’. Gliding across the stage, adding a pirouette here and there Abigail sang of joyous fatalism: “Here comes the apocalypse, and I can’t get enough of it”. Each outstretched hand or pointed finger drew cheers from a crowd that hung onto every striking pose. Traipsing into the twisted not-quite love song ‘Count the Ways’, guitarist Emily Roberts plays a mean riff on her shining bronze guitar. Masterfully balancing elegance with grit, it’s one of many impressive moments across the night showcasing why she’s considered one of the new generation’s indie guitar heroes.
As lights faded into purple and pink for ‘The Feminine Urge’, Abigail announced “Welcome to the pyre - this is the end!” Theatrics, whimsy and post-enlightenment aesthetics characterised the whole evening’s performance, and it wasn’t long before the band were flexing their genre-blending muscles. The folkloric ‘Woman is a Tree’ saw a pagan, somewhat Norse quality emerge as all five voices came together in chants that intermingled outcries of power with pain. The following track ‘Gjuha’, which translates to ‘Tongue’ in Albanian, reflects on keyboardist Aurora Nishevci’s relationship with her mother tongue. “It’s about a yearning to connect at its core, through language, a people, a place, a culture that you’ve been removed from. Language is a beautiful thing” Aurora reflected, before singing the track in warm tones, backed by Emily on mandolin.
‘Rifle’ followed, an angry anti-war ballad written by Lizzie to capture the inequality between suited warmongers and the victims they force into warzones. As more of the stage took on a crimson hue, the barrelling chorus was almost gothic. Lizzie and Abigail ended the song in style with a duet sang in French to each other from atop their set’s raised balcony. Next, the unreleased fan favourite ‘Big Dog’ brought about the heaviest moment of the night, as bassist Georgia Davies’ spoken word opening beckoned “Come all you beasts of the forest” and in response came a wall of headbang-worthy distortion. And after that came ‘Mirror’, one of the band’s earliest ever songs and a bold rumination on unhealthy, identity-sapping co-dependency. “I’m just a mirror: I don’t exist without your gaze” only hit harder in concert, where the track’s already epic quality was amplified further, with a cinematic suaveness apt for a James Bond theme.
For the final night of their tour, The Last Dinner Party had a surprise for the Brixton crowd. “That’s the thing about multiple soundchecks and days off”, Abigail quips. “Sometimes we can’t help but write new music.” Garbed in neon pink lights, the band debuted ‘Knocking at the Sky’, a catchy tune about Los Angeles with a feel-good singalong chorus and typically witty lines from Abigail, including “Honey, there’s a seven-car pileup on the highway to my heart”. Humour, heartfelt moments and another excellent guitar solo from Emily came together in a track sure to be hotly anticipated until its release.
Much like the eclectic array of scenes adorning From the Pyre’s album cover, every element of the night was carefully curated, from lighting to stage design and the bandmembers’ eye-catching outfits. Even stage choreography was included. The glorious choral opening of ‘Second Best’ saw the whole band stand in one rigid line, bound together in five-part harmony. When audiences were finally treated to the all-conquering ‘Nothing Matters’, the smash hit was accompanied with coordinated dance moves, and the audience played along, waving hands to and fro like a synchronised sea of carefree ocean waves.
When the encore inevitably came, it came with the disarming sound yet decisively morbid vocals of ‘This is the Killer Speaking’, From the Pyre’s first and lead single. After a few minutes of the romping tune, Abigail pauses, speaking to the audience. “Brixton: you’re good. But you could be great. And I will teach you greatness in the form of dance” Becoming pure pantomime, Abigail (along with her helpful volunteers from Imogen and the Knife) taught the audience a trio of dance moves to employ for the final chorus of ‘This is the Killer Speaking’. Putting her influences on full display as her short dark hair glistened under the lights, she exclaimed to the giggling crowd “They wouldn’t do this to Liza Minnelli!”
A final reprise of ‘Agnus Dei’ saw the band thank the many people who came together to bring their performance to life: stage managers, lighting, instrument and audio technicians, engineers, managers and photographers, caterers, drivers, stylists and more. Across The Last Dinner Party’s tour, they’d also partnered with the charity Bankuet, raising over £40,000 for local foodbanks across the country, and they were shouted out too. Finally, the time had come to bring the magical show to an end, stating simply “Most of all thank you Brixton: this was your show.”
What became clear that night was that the brilliance of The Last Dinner Party is in the convergence of their many facets. Catchy baroque pop and driving indie rock are filtered through each bandmember’s individual brilliance, from Emily’s sublime guitar (and mandolin) skills to Aurora’s piano, keytar and saxophone talents, and every member’s impressive vocal contributions, not just Abigail’s operatic notes. The end result is undoubtedly greater than the sum of all parts and created an incredibly diverse and powerful performance, sliding between song leaders and genres with ease. In one word: spectacular.
Words by Taran Will
Photography by Stefania Mohottigt
