Live Review: Lambrini Girls - Electric Brixton, London 17/04/2025
Political rioters, Lambrini Girls, fuelled a night of mayhem at Electric Brixton on Thursday night.
Lambrini Girls, a Brighton duo made up of Pheobe Lunny (vocals/guitar) and Lily Macieira (bass), are a well-needed addition to the punk scene. Unapologetic, loud, and filled with rage at the current state of the world, the duo are channelling it all into their music. Their debut album, Who Let The Dogs Out, is 29 minutes of pure chaos, hellish vocals and ferocious guitars, taking fire at issues such as racism, sexism, misogyny and classism, to name a few. They brought their passion and fury to the stage of Electric Brixton on Thursday night, with support from bands Goodbye and M(h)aol, leading an evening of pure anarchy.
Fellow Brighton band Goodbye were the first warmup of the evening, followed by Irish intersectional feminist four-piece M(h)aol, who came out donning Irish and Palestinian flags. M(h)aol are unique, haunting, raw. Their music is fuelled by rage but also acts as a form of release. Their music ranges, with songs dedicated to dead dogs (of which they have quite a few), like I Miss My Dog, Kim Is A Punk Dead Dog and Jack, to the harrowing history of Ireland’s Magdalen Laundries, where “unmarried mothers and difficult women” were sent. M(h)aol sound somewhat hectic, DIY-esque, all quirky drums and distorted guitars. Their track Pursuit, a song about trying to get home safe as a woman, has an almost hypnotic beat to it, combined with spoken-word vocals: “Keys clutched in my hand / if I stand up straight will you think I’m a man?...I thought about it all / if the shoes I’m wearing would help me run away from you.” It’s a punch to the gut, the accuracy of it, the feeling the song encompasses. M(h)aol are different, captivating, gut-wrenchingly good.
“Brixton – are you ready to fuck?” A battle cry, a call to the masses, before chaos ensued when the Brighton duo Lambrini Girls took to the stage. Waves of anticipation roll through the cheering gig-goers. The bone-rattling intro of Big Dick Energy starts, all furious drums and quaking guitars, unleashing the beast. The crowd, who seconds ago were still like calm waters, immediately turned into a storming sea. Bodies crashing together, arms swinging, empty cups flying through the air in what seems like slow motion compared to the speed of the crowd moving. Lambrini Girls had lit a match and set Electric Brixton alight.
The duo don’t hold back, immediately throwing themselves into the middle of the mosh pit below. Lead vocalist, Pheobe, splits the crowd like Moses split the Red Sea, opening up the space for the pair to climb into. Electric Brixton followed their lead, lowering themselves down onto the floor with the Lambrini Girls, tensions in the room building, the crowd anticipating the next moves of the duo, everyone down on their knees, itching to go, eyes alight. The girls climb back onto the stage having lit the fuse, and as Pheobe screams “it’s not that fucking big”, the crowd explode, back on their feet, rushing furiously towards each other, bodies colliding, grins on everyones face.
The Lambrini Girls are known for being vocal on political issues and have no qualms about calling out the government or the far right, unafraid to use their platform and their music to make a stand. There is no issue too big or too small that the Lambrini Girls will not address; they do not shy away from potential backlash. They are a “political band,” and while their rage-fuelled tracks already speak volumes, the duo use their time on stage to further amply their stance. They call for cheers for the “Queer Legends”, which is met with roars from the crowd, before the duo roll straight into Help Me I’m Gay, from their EP, You’re Welcome. The mosh pit raged on, unrelenting, as the pair dominated the stage. The floor vibrates as the whole of Electric Brixton chants “FREE PALESTINE” as the band “address the biggest political issue our generation has ever seen”, the genocide of Gaza, encouraging their audience, to boycott, divest, protest and “call out your fucking mates.” As the guitars and maddening drums of God’s Country begin, and bodies start crashing into each other once more, there’s an overwhelming sense of unity between the band and the crowd.
A Lambrini Girls show offers those who attend a safe space to be themselves, to be free, to embrace their anger at the state of the world and release it all on the dancefloor, in the mosh pit. “Great Britain, are you sure?” is yelled at the top of everyone’s lungs, whilst Pheobe, like an angry preacher, divides the crowd once more for Bad Apple, the opening track from their debut album. She encourages the crowd to embrace their anger, use it as fuel, to “beat the shit out of” her as she stands in the middle of the pit. The duo make a point of performing Terf Wars, from the You’re Welcome EP, even though it’s not usually included in their set. Still, they felt it necessary to play that night, given the Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. It’s overwhelming, the feeling during that particular song, of support, of safety, of allyship between every single person in Electric Brixon. Arms are raised in defiance as the whole room screams, “You’re not a feminist, you’re a stain on this earth. Shut your stupid mouth, you stupid fucking terf.”
The energy never falters, from the band or the crowd, for the entirety of the set. People bouncing on their heels, smiles on their faces, colliding together and dancing whilst Lambrini Girls provide a mix of songs from their discography - Love, No Homo, Lads Lads Lads, Company Culture. The Lambrini Girls encourage the chaos, the messiness, like friends egging you on to do something daft as people crowd surf, climb on each other's shoulders in the middle of the pit, Pheobe pouring Lambrini into the mouths of those right at the front. The final leg of the set, the last two songs, the crowd and the band are fully charged, raring to go, giving it everything they’ve got. Phoebe and Lily demand the “biggest mosh pit Electric Brixton has ever seen” during the penultimate song, Craig David. She runs to the top balcony, looking down at the crowd below, directing them into formation. Chants of “Fuck Fascism” and “Trans Lives Matter” travel around the venue, shaking the walls before Pheobe yells GO and the crowd let themselves fly.
As the distorted sounds of their final song Cuntology 101 starts, all eyes are on the Lambrini Girls. They’ve brought chaos, fun, mess, rage, passion to the centre, and the people have danced in it, moshed in it, marvelled in it. There is perhaps no better form of therapy than a Lambrini Girls show. “Learning how to let go is cunty.”
Words by Angela English
