LAMBRINI GIRLS - ELECTRIC BRIXTON - 17/04/25

The timing of this gig couldn’t have been more poignant. Just hours earlier on the 16th of April, the UK Supreme Court made a controversial ruling that will undoubtedly set back trans rights, deciding that the legal definition of a woman should be based on biological sex. In the wider context, the conflict in Palestine rages on, and Britain continues to feel like a nation sleepwalking through crisis after crisis. Where government language stumbles into vapid euphemisms – referring to anything and everything is a "complex issue" or a "difficult debate” – Lambrini Girls speak plainly and loudly about their opinions.

From the outset, their performance was laced with confrontation and community. The repeated syntax of “This song is about… [ie, the police],”, followed by “Do you like… [the police]?” and finally, “I said, do you f*cking hate… [the police]!” established a dialogical hounding of our country’s ‘leaders.’ These were not just rhetorical flourishes but collective chants, using punk as pedagogy. The audience resembled a classroom of sweaty, charged teenagers with shared discontent, rather than upholding the crowd-performer separation typical at live performances. The mosh pit split the crowd like a crack in a surface under pressure, while those near the back nodded along—less visceral but no less engaged.

The band’s stage presence has clearly been honed. With structured routines like “follow my finger” and “repeat after me”, the set felt like a punk pantomime. At one point, a guided breathing exercise devolved into primal screaming, echoing the shrill, gleeful chaos of a playground gone rogue. Catharsis was the real headline act.