NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
Have your heard of the UK punk band Lambrini Girls? If not, it won’t be for much longer. They’ve already started to become well known not only for their kick ass performances but also for their extremely vocal stance on many of today’s political and social issues. With their one EP You’re Welcome, released in 2023, and their debut studio album Who Let the Dogs Out, released this January, the band, led by vocalist/guitarist Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lilly Macieira-Boşgelmez, have made themselves heard. LGBTQX issues? “Help Me I’m Gay”. Check! Sexist workplace? “Company Culture”. Check! Toxic masculinity? “Big Dick Energy”. Check!! You name an issue and they’ve got a song for it! You can tell how quickly their reach has become as they had to upgrade from the 355 capacity Velvet Underground in Toronto to the 1,350 capacity Phoenix Concert Theatre and we’re still filled to the brim! It was sure to be a crazy and exciting show!
The opener was an Australian duo called Party Dozen, made up of Kristy Tickle on the alto sax and “vocals” and Jonathan Boulet on drums. I put vocals in quotes because I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone screaming into the bell of a saxophone! Does an effects pedal work on sound coming in from where the sound is supposed to go out? No idea but it was an experience to say the least. The audience had a great time though and Party Dozen proved to be the appetizer before the main course.
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Lambrini Girls took the stage as a punk band should; with lead vocalist Phoebe Lunny throwing the crowd the middle finger with both hands! The show burned at 120% from the start with “Big Dick Energy”!! I’m not sure I’ve ever been to a show that didn’t at least start off a little more chill. If things settled down a bit, Lunny was sure to tell everyone exactly what she thought. “I think we’d all agree that we’re pissed off at the world”. If you weren’t, I’m not sure what you were doing at a Lambrini GIrls show! Lunny spent a good portion of the show IN THE CROWD! She would motion for the crowd to part and she would step into the pit. Just incredible!
Whether it was calling our sexual assault in the music scene, which is everywhere, or yelling about how the police suck, the band did their job in amping things as high as they could go. My favorite part was when Lunny led the crowd in some “meditation”. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Oh, meditation is really stupid so we’re going to just breathe in. Then, when we breathe out Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I must admit I was a bit disappointed that there was no stage diving or crowd surfing from the band. Perhaps it’s a Canadian thing. I won’t even try to describe any more of the show because you really need to go experience it. They’ll continue to tour North American through May before their UK/EU tour this summer. Check them out!
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