Lambrini Girls’ debut album Who Let The Dogs Out is 29 minutes and 25 seconds long. It’s 11 tracks of heel-on-your neck punk — rippers all, spit out at a whiplash pace by vocalist and guitarist Phoebe Lunny. Operating at maximum efficiency, a tour date supporting the record could, hypothetically, clock in at less than a half hour.
But punk is never a simple run-through of material, and based on the way that the English band took the stage Friday night (May 2) at Somerville’s Center for the Arts at the Armory, you wouldn’t know they had a new record to promote. “A political demonstration with incredibly sick guitar riffs” might be a better description than “show,” as Lunny and bassist Lilly Macieira — two mops of hair arched over their instruments — focused on whipping up a cathartic fervor.
Because at a time when there are 575 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills circulating in the United States, we need Lambrini Girls mocking the panic over queer people’s existence with the playfully sardonic narrative of “Help Me I’m Gay.”
At a time when the president of the United States casually muses about plans to “take over” the Gaza Strip, as if it were a mere Monopoly board property, we need Lambrini Girls leading chants of “Free Palestine / Fuck fascism” before performing their song “God’s Country.” (A satirization of life and the government in England, not the United States, but if the shoe fits…)
At a time when J.K. Rowling posts a smug selfie, puffing on a cigar, celebrating a transphobic ruling by the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, we need Lambrini Girls selling hats that read “fuck TERFs” in thick, unapologetic block letters.
At a time when a nauseatingly misogynistic phrase like “your body, my choice” can contaminate social media, we need Lambrini Girls glorifying the simple acts of setting boundaries and respecting others in “Cuntology 101.”
At a time when — according to data from the Department of Justice — one American is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds, we need Lambrini Girls advocating for safer creative communities via “Boys in the Band” — and then offering a digestible, easy-to-implement method for holding abusers accountable for their actions. (“The way to begin changing that is to start with believing victims when they come forward to you about something that’s happened to them,” said Macieira).
At a time when all of these things hang in the air like smog, impacting our quality of life, we need Lambrini Girls entering the crowd and shepherding everyone to the perimeter of the dance floor to make room for an unusually large massive mosh pit — because what is moshing if not an exercise in putting pent-up frustration to good use? If not a reminder that outrage can be transformed into action — into punk, protests, or a fusion of both — instead of festering inside of you?
At an incredibly sour time, we need the sweet din of defiance.
We need Lambrini Girls.