Live Report: The Last Dinner Party at Dublin's 3Olympia

Under a (painted) crescent moon, the coven assembled, their loyal followers ready. Though a Cupid hung above the stage, arrow poised, fans of The Last Dinner Party know that the band isn’t about traditional matchmaking – but they were very ready to be loved.

“We had a feeling Dublin would be good to us!” laughed Abigail Morris, the 24-year-old lead vocalist who spent the night commanding the stage and conducting the audience like a blend of Stevie Nicks, Freddie Mercury and Kate Bush. For such a young lead, Morris proved enthralling, her fingers constantly casting spells and body occasionally flung across the stage, embodying the playful, dramatic, baroque energy that The Last Dinner Party bring to all their performance.

The Last Dinner Party at 3Olympia Theatre. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon.

And this show was a resurrection – the band had to cancel several shows across the UK last week following medical advice but celebrated their return to the stage after a “hard and necessary break.” But the British indie art-rock queer femme-power band were back, dressed in big sleeves, corsets, Alice in Wonderland platforms, fringed cowboy boots and ready to get back to, in Morris’ words, “the reckless destruction of family values!”

But it The Last Dinner Party is your chosen family, it’s a good one. The band are collaborating with Bankeut, a charity that donates money to local food banks, who were taking donations at the door. The band were also hugely supportive of their opening acts, Scottish songwriter Kaeto, who brought raw emotion to her spine-tingling trip-hop songs, which combine touches of Portishead but also Nina Simone to create a sound that’s modern and haunting.

Kateo’s subtle, building emotion was a gorgeous start to the evening, followed by Scottish rock band Lucia & The Best Boys, who bring some understated operatic flair to songs like ‘Burning Castles’ and the sweeping, surging darkpop song ‘So Sweet I Could Die’ – turning the energy up another notch and energetically feeling very much like a little sister of the main event.

Kicking off with ‘Burn Alive’, the gothic lyrics referring to stained wine and candle wax, drew attention to the playfully dramatic flourishes onstage, including wine goblets on the grand piano and a bird bath holding some extra equipment. The theatrics all fit perfectly for the opener which builds from moody verses to a crescendo of Kate Bush energy, wonderfully harnessed by Morris, with keyboardist Aurora Nishevci also drawing attention as she hopped on piano.

Emily Roberts was similarly hypnotising on the flute, specially at the start of ‘Beautiful Boy’, one of the band’s slower and more plaintive songs, with delicate piano and crooning vocals expressing jealousy at the ease of men moving through the world. This brooding, sorrowful tone was matched by a cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’, the aching mood piece proving a perfect choice for The Last Dinner Party.

The Last Dinner Party at 3Olympia Theatre. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon.

Of course, as fans know, they also know how to bring the energy – as they did later with a delicious cover of Blondie’s ‘Call Me.’ Stevie Nicks was producer Giorgio Moroder’s first choice for the song, and Morris gave us the witchy Nicks version we missed out on, dancing around on stage and getting the Olympia crowd to their feet.

The choice of covers showed the intergeneration love there is for The Last Dinner Party, who have captured the hearts of not only Gen Z, fans of queer pop like Chappell Roan but also Millennials and older music fans who can feel the influence of Kate Bush, Fleetwood Mac, Bowie, Siouxsie and the Banshees as well as more modern influences like Florence And The Machine. The crowd at the Olympia was a gorgeous blend of generations, united by their love of great music and a dramatic sleeve.

When the chorus of ‘On Your Side’ hit, the entire venue echoed with the words “When it’s 4am/And your heart is breaking/I will hold your hands/To stop them from shaking”, and the love and support of the lyrics reverberated through the crowd as Morris hopped on the front barrier, singing directly into the audience. Diehard fans who were at the band’s Dublin gig last year were the first audience to ever hear 'On Your Side' live, and Morris reminisced about the “crazy” response they got.

The band moved to a more intimate tone for ‘Gjuha’, a short aria led by Aurora, who introduced the song by explaining that it’s about feeling ashamed about not knowing their mother tongue Albanian very well. The short, delicate song transitioned beautifully into the heavy hitting ‘Sinner’; the eerie ‘The Feminine Urge’, exploring the shared trauma and connection between mothers and daughters; and ‘Portrait Of A Dead Girl’ which let guest drummer Victoria and bassist Georgia Davies, resplendent in giant sleeves and a flowing dress, rock out.

The Last Dinner Party at 3Olympia Theatre. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon.

For ‘The Killer’ (aka ‘Yeehaw Interlude’) Morris left the stage and appeared in a box, draping herself across the ornate architecture like she was haunting it – and no-one was trying to exorcise her.

And of course, the final song of the night was ‘Nothing Matters’ the passionate, thrilling, sexy, grandeur-filled sweeping anthem of Kate Bush-esque cabaret, that had everyone in the Olympia on their feet, with more than a few throwing their flower crowns onto the stage. While an in-joke had Morris begin the song singing in Simlish, she soon had everyone singing the maximalist art-pop ode to excess.

If this is The Last Dinner Party, we’re going out strong, drinking every drop of wine and sucking the marrow from the bone. It’s delicious excess and we’re eating it all up.

The Last Dinner Party play another sold-out show at Dublin's 3Olympia Theatre tonight, October 8.

The Last Dinner Party at 3Olympia Theatre. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon.