The Last Dinner Party @ O2 Academy Glasgow, 20 Sep

The Last Dinner Party are a band that seem to inspire strong feelings. For some, they’re an inspiration to raid your nearest vintage shop and start dressing like a Jane Austen character. For others, they’re a shining beacon that proves British guitar music still has a future – or a warning that it needs to adapt or die. For a third group, the band’s rapid rise makes them want to scour the internet for any hint of a blue Wikipedia link identifying the members' parents.

Before we get to see the divisive Londoners take to the stage tonight, there’s not one but two support acts with similarly theatrical inclinations. First up is Kaeto, a singer – and former clown college attendee – making cavernous dreampop that echoes through the O2 Academy. The music may sound serious but there’s moments of joy too, with the musician having some fun with the wind machine that sends her hair streaming, and the vocoder coda on standout track U R MINE.

Even more impressive are recent 2024 SAY Award longlisters Lucia & The Best Boys, a group likely familiar to any regular Glasgow gig-goer, given their surfeit of high-profile support slots (Biffy Clyro, Dream Wife, Garbage and more). A quick text to a friend in the promo business confirms that alongside their impressive collection of grandiose pop songs, they have that most important quality for a group on the make: they’re reliable and hard-working.

Lucia Fairfull strikes poses amidst the goth drama of When You Dress Up and the slick glam stomp of So Sweet I Could Die, but she also possesses an absolute powerhouse of a voice. Thanking her best friend for making her striking golden outfit, she leaves the stage, but it’s a performance that's sure to stick in the memory of the enthusiastic crowd (check them out at their own show at SWG3 in the spring).

One of the perils of being thrust to headliner level when your entire studio oeuvre consists of one album of 12 songs – Prelude to Ecstasy – is that you have to play the lot, even the ones that a more casual listener might skip past. That said, the Glasgow crowd are so hyped for The Last Dinner Party that the second a song ends, they’re yelling and hollering.

With theatrical blue and gold drapes, vintage store stage costumes and singer Abigail Morris’ eye-catching – if a little studied – stage moves, there’s a sense of drama and motion at all times, and if that comes with a touch of theatre kid corniness then that’s a necessary concession for mass connection.

The night’s opening stretch doesn’t do Morris’ vocals any favours, getting a little lost among the instrumentation. But as she loosens up and the sound tech adds some punch, the band hit a groove, rocketing their way through tracks like Sinner and the skyscraping My Lady of Mercy. 

Morris may not have Debbie Harry’s effortless new wave cool on a riotous over of Blondie’s Call Me but her try-hard approach has its own charm. She’s a supremely likeable frontwoman, paying effusive praise to her bandmates and knighting bassist Georgia Davies with a Guinness hat tossed from the crowd.

Set closer Nothing Matters was one of those astonishing debut singles that made you instantly sit up and take notice, so there’s no surprise that its saved til last. “This is only the second night of the tour, but Glasgow, you’ve set the bar so high,” Morris gushes. It’s hard to believe the city could scream louder. Even the haters would be impressed. Keep your puffy sleeves, ribbons and flowery headpieces to hand, they’re back again next month and it’s bound to be equally electric.