LAMBRINI GIRLS RAISE COMPLETE CHAOS WITH INTIMATE LONDON HEADLINE

LIVE REVIEW | LAMBRINI GIRLS – LONDON SCALA 13/06 by Morris Shamah

Lambrini Girls took the stage at Scala at approximately ten minutes to 10pm on Thursday night, and immediately channeled chaos, coming out spraying beer and, of course, Lambrini over the sold-out crowd. I predicted it would only take three songs for frontperson and guitarist Phoebe to end up over the barrier and in the mosh pit. I was wrong – it took less than one. The next 70 minutes were full of mosh pits and crowd surfing and the kind of rambunctious crowd energy one only expects from an IDLES gig. Phoebe and Lily, bassist, were right there in the thick of it with their instruments, playing both the crowd and the music into a frenzy.

Lambrini Girls have been recording music and playing shows for a few years now, but Scala was one of the rare headline shows where they have more than 30 minutes and a crowd dedicated to seeing them, specifically. In a summer packed with festival slots and support gigs, it’s a breath of fresh air for them to be the main attraction. The crowd was well warmed up by opening acts Sulk and CLT DRP (pronounced “clit drip”). Sulk brought a boom-stomp death punk intensity which got the mosh pits going, and CLT DRP followed with the aggressive, neo-hardcore that rattles your skull and gets you fired up. Lily even joined CLT DRP for their second song, a match made in punk heaven.

Lambrini Girls are intensely, loudly, and inherently political; keeping the torch of socio-political punk brightly lit. While I’ve yet to see them garner a negative reaction, there’s a bit of relief when you know the crowd is definitely full of like-minded people. There’s a contradiction to that too – how urgent can these calls be when I’ve been hearing them from the same person to the same people over the course of two years now – but that’s more than made up with the generous crowd reaction. This is a show, after all.

Covering topics from predatory abuse in the music industry (“Boys In The Band”) to trans rights (“Terf Wars”) to religious nationalism (“God’s Country”), there’s nothing subtle about Lambrini Girls on record.

There’s nothing subtle about them live, either – blink and you’ll miss it but Phoebe is in the crowd again, holding out their microphone for you to yell “I’m a gay legend!” Go to the bar for a refill, and oh now they’re on the balcony and security is telling them they can’t jump into the crowd from that height. It’s a whirlwind of moshing and listening, of punk and politics. It works, too – there hasn’t been an upcoming band on the scene this electrifying and unpredictable in years, but the specificity of their political presence helps keep things grounded. You do need to worry about your head and your clothes, because who know what will happen at a Lambrini Girls show, but you don’t need to think about why or what their saying – it’s clear. It couldn’t be clearer. And if you disagree, you should just get the fuck out.

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