Bambie Thug
Academy, Dublin
★★★★☆
Bambie Thug started 2024 as a little-known alternative artist and is ending it as an Irish household name, having hurtled into the national psyche as a fully fledged alternative pop idol, complete with the sound, the look, the moves and of course, the witchcraft.
Looking like something that stepped out of a Tim Burton movie rather than Macroom, Co Cork, Bambie Thug dazzled and divided; the artist has been the subject of both praise and controversy in their 10 months in the public eye.
Here, at the all ages Academy gig, it’s hard to imagine that the non-binary artist invited criticism from leftists who wanted Bambie to boycott the Eurovision and from pulpits that disavowed Bambie’s unapologetic queerness.
The hyper-pop diva’s fan base, known as “the Coven”, is a broad church; Halloween costumes, goths, kids with their parents, Eurovision fans and flag flourishing LGBTQIA+ supporters all worship side by side at the altar of Bambie.
The music of 2024: Our critics’ verdicts on the best albums and acts of the year
One Leg One Eye review: Forget Fairytale of New York. This is a soundtrack of the real Irish Christmas
Daniel O’Donnell says friend was scammed by a fake social media account posing as him
Saint Etienne: The Night – Say hello to the insomniac street preachers
Having been suitably hyped by Limerick’s Hazey Haze, a silence falls over the sweaty venue before the stage is illuminated with white crosses and we are counted in by Bambie’s breathy introduction speech welcoming the audience to the Coven.
Emerging as a gothic spectacle clad in a high cape, a fairy dress (last worn in public as part of their Eurovision stint), Maleficent-styled horns and dizzying platform heels, the artist opened with Hex so Heavy. A suitably Halloween-y number.
The set is notably more pop orientated than expected, sounding like the darker and more obscure cousin of Lady Gaga, with the dance routines suiting a stage several orders of magnitude bigger than the Academy.
Assisted by two muscular dancers donning balaclavas and crop tops, Bambie performed Kawasaki with an eerie unholiness.
[ Bambie Thug’s quiet protest was more effective than any Eurovision boycottOpens in new window ]
There’s a sincerity at the heart of the gig too, beneath the spectacle. The artist performed a new original number titled Children Should Be Laughing, about the war in Gaza and Lebanon. Draped in a Palestine flag, the song provided a sombre pause in the hyperpop festivities.
The Corkonian’s sorcery also applies to crowd work: water-guns are sprayed on audience members who are not headbanging with enough gusto, signed posters are handed to attendees who have mastered the star’s Fangtasy dance, there’s even a coy little “you know what to do if you want me back on stage” as they leave before their encore.
As they return on stage, there’s only one song to sign the night off and that’s Ireland’s highest performing Eurovision entry since 2000, Doomsday Blue.
The crowd is treated to an intimate version of the arena performance, with Bambie exorcising their dance demon in a trans flag inspired bikini. Organ grinding metal is overlaid on to screamo and pop with neopagan witchcraft.
It’s chaotic, but it’s somehow coherent – Bambie Thug’s MO.
Bambie Thug plays the Academy again on Thursday, October 31st, plus the Limelight, Belfast, on Monday, October 28th; Róisín Dubh, Galway, on Saturday, November 2nd; and City Hall, Cork, on Thursday, November 7th
