Review: The Last Dinner Party @ AEC Theatre 13/01/26
“The music The Last Dinner Party offer up is sacred, lavish, and sensual - what more could one ask of a Tuesday night?”
Words Emily Wilson // Images Cameron Stemmler
The Last Dinner Party w/Sir Chloe @ AEC Theatre 13/01/26
The stage is framed by gauzy, tattered curtains - bone-white. The concert-goers, soundtracked by dramatic orchestral entrance music, are bedecked in corseted lace and ruffled ebony skirts. On this Tuesday night, the Adelaide Entertainment Centre looks as if it is being flooded by the attendants of some type of gothic Bridgerton convention.
A sizable crowd is already present, ready to receive the opening act: New York-bred indie rock outfit Sir Chloe. She arrives onstage, band in tow - all in a uniform of jet-black - to a shower of gold light and a rush of applause. Her arrival reveals the intricate stage design that mimics the aesthetics of a cathedral, complete with the silhouettes of birds, altars, arches, and hanging bells.
Sir Chloe has a voice that melts its way through moody melodies, buoyed by ferocious drumming and thrashing guitar. Her music boasts lyricism that is coolly cutting, and garners generous whoops from the crowd. “Good evening, I’m Sir Chloe, and I’ll be your host for the next forty minutes,” she murmurs coyly into the mic, light flashing over features worthy of a Tim Burton film. The forty-five minutes are met with frothing enthusiasm, a perfect set-up for what is to come.
The anticipation is high in the interim between sets. When the members of The Last Dinner Party do finally walk onstage, they are slow and angelic. When the show begins, vocalist Abigail Morris directs it with the charisma of a cult leader. Her vocal acrobatics are eccentric but consummate, a fiery combination of Kate Bush and Agnetha Fältskog. She leaps and bounds and gyrates her way through a remarkable delivery of ‘Count The Ways,’ and soars through ‘The Feminine Urge.’
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It is a thrilling display of baroque hedonism. Ribbons stream from the necks of the bass and guitars. The band simulates a holy experience for an adoring crowd.
“Good evening, Adelaide,” Morris purrs. “What a pretty name.” She is drenched in violet-ruby lighting. “We knew the show was going to be good before we stepped onstage because we could hear you from the fucking dressing room.” She laughs with glee as the crowd goes wild.
After some more delicious theatrics, the bassist, George Davies, introduces herself as an Australian, to much raucous enthusiasm. “It is so great to be back and show my best friends what makes Australia so great.” She mentions that they went on an expedition to Glenelg the day before, and the roof shakes with the crowd’s appreciation.
Davies goes on to acknowledge the land of the Kaurna people. “This always has been and always will be Aboriginal land. And as I walk across this beautiful land, I think of the irrevocable debt we owe them, a debt that can never be paid.” Her sincere sentiments touch a nerve.
The band continues to play - as a group, they are totally cohesive, in step with one another both musically and emotionally. This is startlingly evident during a transportive rendition of the tender ballad ‘On Your Side.’
Throughout the set, the crowd is infatuated. But by the time The Last Dinner Party launches into their zealous breakout hit, ‘Nothing Matters’, the crowd is in love - and for good reason. The music they offer up is sacred, lavish, and sensual - what more could one ask of a Tuesday night?
