The Last Dinner Party spent their pupal years in the pandemic. Their years behind a mask, or a veil, were spent honing their aural and visual craft. In 2023, they burst from their chrysalis as a fully conceived, fully formed, art-rock entity. They have spent this year barnstorming across sell-out tours and festival appearances. In March we praised their live cover of Sparks’ “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us.” Now, in preparation for a new album release in October, featuring several covers, they have released a pro recording of the Sparks tune with a video covering their performances of the classic over Brat summer.
British director Edgar Wright’s marvelous film documentary about Sparks made more money in the UK than it did in the Maels’ brothers home in the US. This continues a tradition lasting decades. Ron and Russell Mael were much more comfortable in the milieu of David Bowie, T-Rex and Roxy Music than at home, and the love was reciprocated on these shores. They were a fixture on the BBC’s Top of the Pops in the ’70s and their biggest hit reached the top 10 in the UK 50 years ago, without troubling the Billboard 100. The song was adopted in the UK by post-punks and there are great versions by Siouxsie and the Banshees and in Sparks’ collaboration with Faith No More. The key aspect of the song is the bluster inherent in the injunction of the title. Russell is a charismatic, but not imposing, presence on stage, and his brother wrote a song in a key with notes at the edge of his range. It is unclear whether his threats are an act of desperation as he struggles to face down his antagonist. Brought up in Los Angeles, perhaps someone kicked sand in his face.
Abigail Morris does not have this problem. She gives every impression that when she issues a musical threat, she can follow through on it. That may be because she has Emily Roberts providing expert covering fire on lead guitar, and has the rest of the well-honed band in support. It may be because she can expertly call on the audience for vocal or physical support. It may be that she is just the most astonishing front person. It would take a braver antagonist than most, even one who fancied their chances against Sparks, to stand up to the threat.
LDP have an absolute plethora of diverse covers out there (there’s even a Sound of the Underground out there if you look hard enough) and whilst this may be the best of the bunch, the forthcoming special edition of their album is set to include even more that might just top it.