LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: The Last Dinner Party – Aviva Studios, Manchester – 26/11/2025

Aviva Studios was the perfect match for The Last Dinner Party, a 5,000-capacity cathedral of sound and spectacle that felt built for their brand of baroque-pop theatrics. The sold-out show drew a devoted crowd of teens, middle-agers, and everyone in between, dressed to the nines and ready to worship.

Newcastle’s Imogen And The Knife set the tone with a sharp, confident opener, reminiscent of Portishead and Slowdive with their dream-pop / shoegaze tones, but the moment the lights dropped for Agnus Dei, the room shifted. The Last Dinner Party didn’t so much start their set as summon it. They roared into Count The Ways and The Feminine Urge, the band radiating total command as the crowd screamed every lyric. Caesar On A TV Screen hit like a shot of neon adrenaline, while On Your Side and Second Best delivered that perfect blend of emotional punch and stadium-ready swagger.

One touching thing about The Last Dinner Party is how genuinely they seem to care, about causes that matter and about their fans who show up for them. You can feel it in the way they speak to the room, and in the way the room answers back.

The darker mid-set run of I Hold Your Anger, Woman Is A Tree, Gjuha, Rifle and Big Dog showed how effortlessly they shift tone. One minute intimate, the next operatic; one moment delicate, the next volcanic. Then came the dramatic sweep: Mirror, The Scythe and Sail Away turned the warehouse into a dreamscape, all shimmering lights and soaring vocals. The biggest roars were saved for the new material from their current album From The Pyre, songs that sound every bit as strong as their Mercury-nominated debut Prelude To Ecstasy.

Sinner, My Lady Of Mercy and Inferno landed with the confidence of classics, before the main set with a euphoric Nothing Matters, the crowd shouting every word like a declaration. The encore brought a theatrical flourish with This Is The Killer Speaking, before a reprise of Agnus Dei left the room hanging in a final, breath-held hush.

The night felt like a band stepping boldly into the scale their music demands—bigger rooms, bigger drama, bigger emotion, and judging by the reaction inside Aviva Studios, The Last Dinner Party are more than ready for it.

Words and photos by Ben Whitehurst (Instagram)