In a week which ended in a day spent in a sweltering workplace with no air conditioning, a journey home on train full of bams with a lack of any social airs or graces, delivery companies that just don’t deliver, and a thunder and lightning storm that did little to reduce the humidity, I was in need of some light relief. I nearly turned back from the station as I was running late, doubting I would make it in time for the mighty Bin Juice, and I felt like a hideous sweaty mess, even my eyeballs were sweating, and my hay fever was getting the better of me, but I fortuitously looked at my phone to see that Bin Juice stage time was 15 minutes later than I first thought. I’d just suck it up and deal with my sweaty man boobs, I knew there was reason I picked a black shirt.
Arriving at one of my favourite Glasgow venues with minutes to spare, and picking up a refreshing Che Guava before heading to the basement, it couldn’t have been more perfect timing as a mere couple of minutes later Bin Juice took to the stage. Due to circumstances transpiring against me on previous occasions, this was the first time I have witnessed Bin Juice first hand. I’d heard great things about their live performances, but nothing could have prepared me for how good they actually were. This was a performance worthy of a headline act, the band seemingly enjoying the adulation as much as the crowd were enjoying their eclectic performance, I’m sure there was a large element of the crowd who were induced into coming to the gig on the strength of Bin Juice alone.
The interaction between the band and their adoring audience was part of what made their set so buoyant and gratifying, and set the scene for what was to come. That interaction, and of course the songs, including, appropriate for the current climate, Sweaty Tits, the body parts theme threaded into Time to Eat Toes, of course there was the superb single Cookie Coma, a song about consuming too may edibles and being unable to get off the sofa, and new single (out this Friday coming) Packet Ham – if your gran told you then it must be true! The songs have an element of humour sprinkled liberally throughout (I’m sure you could have guessed from the song titles) with a diverse and varied range of styles and influences shining through, one thing omnipresent is the gloriously thundering heavy bass underlining everything. The bands all too short set ended on the tale of shite haircuts, That’s You Done, leaving the crowd perfectly warmed up for the main event… My Bin Juice duck now broken, I want more!
And more is exactly what we got…much more. Lambrini Girls performance had a bit of everything thrown in for good measure, not quite the kitchen sink, but not far off cramming just about everything else into their incendiary set. This was amongst the most fun I’ve had at a gig for a long time. Probably one of the most inclusive gigs I’ve been to recently too, not just in terms of audience mix, where everyone was welcome unless you happened to be a TERF or an overtly toxic bloke, neither of which I can pretty much guarantee were in the mix, but also in terms of audience participation. The usual barriers between stage and floor blurred for the evening, with band and audience swapping places regularly. This included gig goers celebrating birthdays being sung to on stage before crowd surfing their way back off again, and singer/guitarist Phoebe making regular forays off the stage, at one point seemingly crawling like Spiderwoman across the roof as she surfed the crowd and at another point taking the opportunity to celebrate some of the “gay legends” in the audience during the anthemic Help Me I’m Gay.
Live, and musically, the band have the furious energy of Savages, if they were fronted by Amy from Amyl and the Sniffers, the songs played with a rage and passion as if their life depended on it, and to be fair, that isn’t far from the truth based on the serious messages underlying some of their songs – abusive relationships (Mr Lovebomb) and male toxicity, sexism and abuse in the music industry and at gigs (Boys in the Band). Yes, this gig was a lot of fun, but Phoebe did make a serious point about calling out unwanted sexual behaviours and believing the victims of abuse at the hands of someone you may think you know.
All the songs from their recent debut EP, You’re Welcome, got an airing, the controversial subject of trans-exclusionary radical feminists tackled on TERF Wars, a subject particularly close to the hearts of the Scottish trans community following Westminster’s recent blocking of Scottish legislation. Lambrini Girls made it clear on what side of the fence they sit, the call and response from the crowd cementing the spirit of the room. Alongside this, lad culture and toxic masculinity was called out on Lads Lads Lads, White Van and Big Dick Energy.
it was hard to keep track on where Phoebe was at times. In the audience, on the audience, lying on the floor, surfing above the heads of the crowd, at one point as I looked around the room with a huge smile, I turned back to witness her climbing on a monitor stack right in front of me. Not to be outdone, Lilly and Demelza joined in on the act, crowd surfing as Crazy Frog blasted from the monitors, reappearing at various points around the venue, before closing out the night with Craig David, not literally I should add, but a final call and response with the crowd. Leaving everyone brimming with exuberance and probably feeling physically shattered.
Without taking anything away from the effervescent energy and brash in your face dynamism of the band, a new star was born in the West End venue. I give you Tyler Swift (the second name may be made up – lol) who seemed to be omnipresent all night, holding court at stage front from Bin Juice all the way to the end of the Lambrini Girls set, offering a bottle of Magnum (Jamaican tonic wine for the uninitiated) to Phoebe, “borrowing” the mic and leading a chant of Fuck the Tories through to downing the dregs of a bottle of Lambrini onstage following the ubiquitous spraying of the audience. In the spirit of what Phoebe talked about earlier in terms of safe spaces and leaving no one behind, it was good to see others looking out for her during and after the gig ended.
Lambrini Girls is perhaps a band which divides opinion, but in my book, they ticked all the right boxes, helping to kick off the weekend off in vigorous and passionate style, a view shared by the folks congregating on the platform of St George’s Cross underground if their reactions were anything to go by.
