On the back end of their rapid ascent, The Last Dinner Party swung through Milwaukee in April of 2024 and treated 987 very lucky people to a sold-out show at Turner Hall. It wouldn’t be long before the band graduated to larger venues — something reflected in their just-announced return to Milwaukee on April 3, almost two years to the day of their previous visit.
This time around, the London quintet will take the stage at the Riverside Theater (capacity: 2,480) as part of their “From the Pyre” tour, which shares the name of the group’s sophomore album that drops this Friday.
The Last Dinner Party didn’t have oodles of material to pull from when they played that first show, having released breakout debut album Prelude to Ecstasy just a few months prior. That didn’t slow them down a bit, as evidenced by the fitting party-esque atmosphere that saturated their entire set.
Although the larger venue might help, the very quick snapping up of tickets for The Last Dinner Party’s previous stop in Milwaukee should be a nudge to pick them up with a bit of urgency this time. You can do that when they go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. next Friday, Oct. 24, online via AXS and at the Pabst/Riverside box offices.
The Last Dinner Party artist bio
The band released the following to announce From the Pyre:
Although it has only been a year since our debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, was released, we had been playing many of those songs since our very first rehearsals in the stagnant summer of 2020. “Nothing Matters,” our first single, has been a feature of every setlist since our first ever gig at the George Tavern in 2021. We have held, nurtured and fed these songs for a long time, and in return they have flown us to heights and guided us on journeys once totally incomprehensible.
While it may seem to an outsider that we have moved quickly on to a second album, this timing felt like a natural progression to us. We’re not closing the book or beginning a new ‘era’, but transforming and shapeshifting, vibrating with the experience and inspiration that these last few years have given us.
It is our absolute delight to present our new album, From The Pyre, to the world. This record is a collection of stories, and the concept of album-as-mythos binds them. “The Pyre” itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also regeneration, passion and light.
The songs are character-driven but still deeply personal, a commonplace life event pushed to pathological extreme. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs into the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc, and blazing infernos.
We found this kind of evocative imagery to be the most honest and truthful way to discuss the way our experiences felt, giving each the emotional weight it deserves. This record feels a little darker, more raw and more earthy; it takes place looking out at a sublime landscape rather than seated at an opulent table. It also feels metatextual and cheeky in places, like a knowing look reflected back at ourselves.
