Armed with two iconic singles, a genuine excitement rarely felt these days in music, and all the glammed-up love and poison of London, The Last Dinner Party are headed to North America.
The London band, who in the spring released “Nothing Matters,” the most striking debut single in recent memory, has announced a short stateside stint for this fall. It’s a tidy five-night romp — worth finally getting dressed up for — that plays Washington D.C., New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Chicago, with more cities blessed by this simple presence come the New Year (yes, we’re admittedly saddened by no Boston date).
“Dearest friends across the Pond, we are finally coming for you this Autumn!,” the band writes. “We can’t wait to see your beautiful faces x P.S. There will be MANY more American dates in 2024. Promise.”
Presale tickets go on sale Tuesday (September 19) at 10 a.m. local time, with a password of NOTHINGMATTERS, and fans are asked to register with the band for the latest info. General on sale starts Friday (September 22).
And their travels to our shores could not have come at a better time. In April, The Last Dinner Party unleashed a stunning piece of theatrical indie art-rock and decadent elegance titled “Nothing Matters,” which followed a steady increase in buzz built upon frenetic live shows across their native England. It’s a remarkable and captivating first entry from the quickly hyped quintet, a spellbinding effort that’s likely the best song we’ll hear in all of 2023, and likely to appear in best-of-decade lists in 2030.
Dancing through the enchanting sound of “Nothing Matters” are hints of Kate Bush, Suede, Sinead O’Connor, and Feist (we have a few others that come to mind as well, including the same type of innocent folk-rock allure found in “Home” by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros). And there’s pure heartbreak poetry in the lyrics, delivered with such seductive smarts and decisive distance by inevitable superstar vocalist Abigail Morris.
Equal parts dramatic and riveting, “Nothing Matters” also contains perhaps the most piercing use of “fuck” in a chorus since Nine Inch Nails propositioned us in “Closer,” as Morris delivers a hypnotic line with crushing weight: “And you can hold me, like he held her / And I will fuck you, like nothing matters.”
In these articles we often supply a quote from the artist to further illustrate a point or a theme; here, The Last Dinner Party speak their volumes through their art. Lyrics like “‘Cause we’re a lot alike, in favour, like a motorbike / A sailor and a nightingale dancing in convertibles” and “We’ve got the highway tight, the moon is bursting with headlights / One more and we’re away, lovе tender in your Chevrolеt” are the types that first send us to Genius, then to Twitter, then finally to the tattoo parlor.
“Nothing Matters,” produced by Last Shadow Puppets’ James Ford, is the rare song in 2023 that forces us to stop the million other things we’re doing at the time, and just sink into this new world they have created.
With buzz at a fever pitch, in June they followed “Nothing Matters” with “Sinner,” a dramatic, boisterous, piano-led romp that certainly won’t slow down any momentum towards becoming everyone’s New Favorite Band. “‘Sinner’ is a story of self-acceptance, and the longing for the past and present self to become one,” says guitarist Lizzie Mayland, via uDiscover. And in a promotional email, the band invites us deeper into their world of decadent elegance: “The time has come for us to bequeath ‘Sinner’ to you. We hope you adore this as much as we do. Turn to the alter of lust.”
“Sinner” was produced by Arctic Monkeys collaborator James Ford, as serves as another firm reminder that there’s just nothing in music right now quite like The Last Dinner Party. And it seems like no band is having as much fun, a vibe that spills out of the speakers and instills a sense of being young and alive in a very broken and hopeless world. Their unique vision is contagious.
America, here they come.
