Lambrini Girls with Big Special, Big Girl at The Granada, Lawrence KS (2026-10-01)

Bad Apple
Company Culture
Help Me I’m Gay
God’s Country
Cult of Celebrity
Lads Lads Lads
Mr Lovebomb
You’re Not From Around Here
Truth To Power
Love
White Man’s World
Bang Bang Bang
No Homo
Craig David
Cuntology 101
Big Dick Energy

YESBOSS.
HUG A BASTARD.
SHOP MUSIC.
PROFESSIONALS.
DUST OFF/START AGAIN
TREES
SHITHOUSE

Wacky Inflatable Arm Man
HandMeDown
Side Effects
Rock Paper Scissors
Crisp interlude
Starx
Split Ends
Shoplifting chant
Walgreens Angel
Demon Jeanz

2 Oct St Louis, MO Delmar Hall
4 Oct Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
5 Oct Asheville, NC The Orange Peel
8 Oct Brooklyn, NY Baby’s All Right
9 Oct Somerville, MA The Rockwell
20 Oct Antwerp, Belgium TRIX
22 Oct Paris, France Petit Bain
23 Nov Hebden Bridge, UK The Trades Club
24 Nov Stoke On Trent, UK The Sugarmill
25 Nov Cardiff, UK Tramshed Cardiff
26 Nov Liverpool, UK Arts Club
27 Nov Hull, UK Polar Bear Music Club
29 Nov Edinburgh, UK Liquid Room
30 Nov Scunthorpe, UK Café INDIEpendent
1 Dec Blackpool, UK Bootleg Social
2 Dec Hebden Bridge, UK The Trades Club
3 Dec Sheffield, UK Electric Studios
5 Dec Coventry, UK Kasbah
6 Dec Wolverton, UK Craufurd Arms
8 Dec Oxford, UK The Bullingdon
9 Dec Brighton, UK CHALK
10 Dec Southsea, UK Wedgewood Rooms
11 Dec Exeter, UK Cavern Club
24 Jul Rock N Roll Circus, Gunnersbury Park, London, UK

When outrage and raw energy is the propelling fuel-

Brighton UK garage punk rock riot grrrls Lambrini Girls brought their 2026 North American Tour to downtown Lawrence, making a much anticipated stop at The Granada Theater, after a Spring date had to be postponed due to injury (and was a follow-up to playing this same venue a couple years ago as support for Amyl and the Sniffers).

The duo of Phoebe Lunny (vocals, guitar) and Selin Macieira-Boşgelmez (bass) along with touring drummer Samantha Collings roared with an unbridled vigor to deliver a blistering, dangerous, and purposely confrontational set that will live in the memories of anyone in attendance, for some time.

A second full-length, No Refunds, has been set for a January 15 release, bumped from November and while we expected a punk-like chaos, their weaponized performance was also a treatise on a rejection of fascism, corporate greed, and a platform for political criticisms.

The band has had to dial some of that energy back, following a Lunny stage dive from a balcony in late February gone wrong, which forced them to pull out of Coachella and a resulting Spring Tour. The acute neck fracture with some brain side effects are apparently healed enough to continue with Lunny more directing the action in the pit now versus participating, though also did climb into the audience to make the proper room for it all to commence.

And the crowd came ready, eager to release as fast songs of resistance played, swirling at the crowd center, as Lunny watched from the stage edge and encouraged the activity to move even further and faster.

Both previous bands had injected politics into their performances, mostly endorsing a Free Palestine, but Lambrini Girls elevated the rhetoric, directly speaking against corporations and the President, were clearly anti-Elon Musk, took a pro-Luigi Mangione stance, and more…and didn’t care if you agreed, or not.

Songs such as “Company Culture,”“Help Me I’m Gay”, and “God’s Country” with their lyrics of social hypocrisy were paired with a no-holds-barred, volume up to eleven, in your face musical attack that refused to let their boot up from your neck.

“Cult of Celebrity” released earlier this year, had a dig on the still fully-unreleased Epstein Files, with Lunny singing, (well, kind of screaming), “I wanna be famous, how the other half live on Lolita Island. If your name’s on the list, just say you saw nothing.”

The songs all came hard as fast, with “White Man’s World” including flying insults at Musk as an intro and “Bang Bang Bang,” the lead single from the upcoming album, sung with Mangione in mind.

“Craig David” found the duo getting the audience to call-and-respond the famous singer’s name, then evolved into other, more political chants (though you could ‘count the crowd in’, not sure how many actually recognized the name, as he’s always been more known in the UK and EU).

“Cuntology 101” delivered a confident provocation with the idea that a well-placed obscenity is sometimes the most direct route to make a point, and the closing “Big Dick Energy” spoke to the ridiculousness of toxic masculinity and entitlement, while also showed the bold fearlessness the trio had, in delivering their message.

The atmosphere was one of sharpened anger and urgency, but also had a celebratory and sometimes amusing nature about it all, and that combination made it all the more entertaining, no matter where you stood on the particular social and political issues.

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The middle slot of the evening was taken by rising UK post punk duo Big Special, in support of newest 10-track EP, O’Joy, released in June (via SO Recordings) which they describe as “the fallen parts” of their first two records- reworked, reshaped and given a life of their own.

Members Joe Hicklin (vocals) and Callum Moloney (drums) first met as teenagers, then reconnected during the 2020 lockdown to to musically start working together. Their songs mix punk energy with some hip-hop, soul, blues, electronic influences and the vocal delivery crosses over into spoken-word poetry, similar to Fontaines DC, Sleaford Mods, Kae Tempest, and others. Lyrically, Hicklin speaks of working-class life, mental health, and social depression, as well as touches on political frustration

The pair obviously have a close connection to one another, and seemed to react to the other’s unspoken nods or a look, and Hicklin came off as a friendly and casual frontman, wrapping his mic cord into his arm while splitting rhymes, and as Moloney kept a rhythmic beat throughout. They seemed genuinely grateful to be on tour in the States and seeing Kansas for the first time.​

NYC band Big Girl opened the evening with a brash splash of indie DYI glam punk that inserted a bit of cabaret theater into their performance, not that anyone needed anything extra to be mesmerized by their set. Formed by singer Kaitlin Pelkey (who briefly filled in a bit in Lambrini Girls) alongside others, everything that we read described them as a six-piece, though we saw only four (that did make enough volume for six), so it’s either a strip-down, or member shake-up.

Musically, they’re often compared to the likes of Chappell Roan, Sleater-Kinney, and The Slits but bring their own flair and sound. Following a 2023 debut full-length, they released EP, DYE last year, and we heard more recent singles like “Side Effects” as well. A shoplifting inquiry mid-set had audience members yelling back the stores they’ve pilfered from, which all lead to a shoplifting chant against the Man and corporations.

Pelkey wasn’t quite done after their set, coming back on stage towards the end of the headliner’s set to do what their vocalist could not, due to doctor’s orders- stage dive into the crowd and be carried around by the audience.​

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