Lambrini Girls/Big Girl @ Warsaw, Brooklyn, NY 6/16/26

 

Bill: Lambrini Girls/Big Girl

Venue: Warsaw, 261 Driggs, Brooklyn, NY

Date: Tuesday 6/16/26

Ticket: $59 (via Tickpick a week in advance, dropped to $35 day of)

9pm Lambrini Girls

Active: 2019 (Brighton, UK)

Latest Release:"Cult of Celebrity" (City Slang, 2026) Let The Dogs Out (City Slang, 2025)

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8pm Big Girl

Active: 2021 (New York, NY)

Latest Release: Dye (Big Girl, 2025)

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2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate?  Well, you got to hand it to the Lambrini Girls they turned it into a memorable song CUNTY! Correctly titled "Cuntology 101" because the British always seem more academic in the US.   Of course all the signposts of modern 20something ideology are there because how could it not be?  So you get your Free Palestine/Safe Space/Shoplift (responsibly from Corporations)/Shoot The Face of a Health Care CEO mantra paired with a local who also feels they must tell this sold out room to Free Palestine as well whether the is one or not to be "freed.'  I appreciated being at least spared from hearing the phrase "the wrong side of history" among the platitudes and exhortations shocking to no one in the room.  We'll see where all of you are at in 20 years when some other tumultuous, seemingly siesmic event you didn't think of today causes a militant upheaval of some sort.

All that said, Phoebe Lunny quickly recovered from a broken neck in Australia initially misdiagnosed to perform this postponed sold out show in the 1,100 capacity Greenpoint venue Warsaw.  Ah youth with it's militancy and fast recovery!  One thing I noticed in this supposed "safe space" is that it was extra annoying with somebody coming up to ask if I was standing in a line while I was just hanging out 3 feet from the entrance watching the opener.  What do you say? "I'm just hanging out watching the band." Duh.  The sweaty shirtless machismo forcing his way to the pit from shows of yesteryear was replaced with some Amazonian Black girl that decided to make some space shoving into the crowd (and me from behind without warning) in the sold out room where there was no room to maneuver.  Different characters, same surprise pre-show breaches of floorspace while chatting with a friend drink in hand.  It is punk rock after all and the is no downtime.  Why should you feel any comfort drinking your overpriced corporate product?   They call it Z-beer because you idiots can't pronounce Zywiec correctly or bother to put the accent on the Z.   Neither can I and I'm Polish!

After getting over the incursion it in all of 3 seconds, I wanted to see if the Lambrini Girls had anything interesting to offer without having heard a note or clearly not having any affiliation with their particular subculture except for a curiosity of what constitutes a popular young "punk" band in 2026 that seemingly transcends a free show in Tompkins Square Park or a run of basement squats.  Lambrini Girls are at the level where they clearly command enough money that the US government allows their visas despite it's ideological opposition, which I find interesting.  Of course, I feel any band should be allowed a performance visa here irrespective of ideology, but that is my peculiar kink.  

Conformism rears it's head at this sort of thing whether reactive or whether you think they might flip political poles completely after the times and scenarios burn themselves out.  That means you sit down on the floor when you are told to and stand back up again to show unity and nod your head at each slogan without thinking about it too much.  Lambrini Girls the band live sound kind of bland by-the-numbers chick punk until the Cunty self-help or self-love anthem at the end of the show.  Then I understood why they are popular as opposed to merely British and ok at what they do.   Funny, with "Cunty" I had this feeling about twenty years ago when I heard "Fuck The Pain Away" by Peaches and then discovered lo and behold Lambrini Girls re-released the track with Peaches remixing the song.  So I guess what is good about them isn't punk rock, it is something else wrapped with punk rock as what is perceived to be it's LGTBQXYZETC strain of ideology.  Listening to the album after the show I like the band better as something along the lines of Amyl and the Sniffers and Idles with someone ranting in a non-Yank accent with a buzzsaw garage punk backdrop.   I like this band more listening to their recordings in the morning.