Live: Bambie Thug in Dublin 2024
Ireland finally sent an amazing artist to Eurovision this year. Doomsday Blue is not a genre I would normally listen to, but I was so intrigued that when Bambie announced a European tour, I had to go!
First of all, I would like to point out that Bambie Thug uses the pronoun “they”, so I will write everything in the plural 🙂
Bambie is from County Cork, but they live in London and were not that well-known in Ireland before Eurovision, even though they had released a few songs by then. This year, the selection of the Irish song at Eurovision was similar to the Czech Republic – several artists performed on TV and then people and juries voted.
Like Czech TV, RTÉ is also quite ehm cheap and all the performances were pretty meh. Even from Bambie – if you compare the video above with this one, you will see and hear what I mean:
You may not like the song, but you have to admit that the glow up is just there. The performance is really on another level. After Eurovision, I listened to their other songs and I immediately liked them because they remind me of an older Lady Gaga. Then when Bambie announced the tour, of course I had to go.
The concert was held at The Academy in Dublin on Halloween. Yeah, the best Halloween ever. I was supposed to go with a friend, but she couldn’t at the last minute, unfortunately. So I went alone and since I usually always stand on the balcony, I decided to try what it was like under the balcony. I stood closer to the back wall, I didn’t feel like squeezing in like a sardine among the people. Even so, the others bumped into me from time to time. But the view was worth it – Bambie and their dancers were on sight the whole concert beautifully.
As for the stage – it was surrounded by artificial candles, glass paintings and there was a throne in the back in the middle. Before Bambie’s set started, we got 3 support acts and I’m still recovering from it. It’s not a big deal, it’s just that everything somehow missed me – the first support act was a GenZ duo, who had pretty good pop songs, but the choreography felt like someone was filming them on TikTok. I wasn’t the target audience, which is okay of course. The second support act was a rapper from Limerick who was shouting into the microphone so much that it gave me a headache. And after him, a drag queen appeared on stage, but only for one song. It was really long.
When it was Bambie’s turn, it was really worth it. The setlist featured their entire catalog plus a great cover of Zombie by The Cranberries during which the dancers brought the Palestinian flag, because Bambie supports Palestine, Sudan, Congo and other countries that are struggling in terrible situations.
Bambie managed to change several costumes during the performance – they started in just underwear/bikinis with a kind of big hat on their head; they then took it off to show that they had a small hat made of hair on their head. After that, they put on a white dress, which after Love Lies (they sang it especially because it was Halloween) one of the dancers “stained it with blood” from the heart (it reminded me quite a bit of Lady Gaga’s performance at the 2009 VMAs). Bambie cites Gaga as an inspiration for the music (and it’s not a bad thing at all). After this bloody white dress, which they theatrically tore up on stage, they showed up in a white and bloody bodysuit. One of the last costumes was literally a suit with a skeleton pattern. After that, there were only two costumes, the iconic ones from Eurovision – the furry Doomsday Blue dress, which Bambie took off during the performance to show another “bikini” in the colors of the trans flag. All of this was complemented by body art representing the spiritualist board known as the Ouija.
The whole evening was full of energy and good mood. It was clear that the audience adores Bambie, so when they entered the audience during one of the songs, no one bothered them and people were just partying. Hearing Bambie live was really great and I can only confirm that they have really great charisma and voice. They didn’t talk much between songs, but even though they have quite “screaming” and “hardcore” songs, they sometimes laughed or said something and their voice is very cute. The concertgoers then had a mini Christmas when during Fangtasy they invited two or three people from the audience to the stage to choreograph Fangtasy with them. Among other songs, they then chose two people with the best costumes. All of them received gifts from Bambie and took home not only experiences, but also material memories.
For me, Bambie 11/10 and I will definitely go again next time. On the other hand, I am really looking forward to all the future songs!
