Lip Filler live in London: buzzy indie upstarts throw a wall-shaking house party

3 July, 2023

lip filler band

To gain access to Lip Filler’s final date of their Double Decker tour, first you have to meet them in the pub. Fans who have purchased tickets to previous dates of the tour – which encompasses north, south, east and now west London – have been invited to a special secret show in Shepherd’s Bush. When you spot the buzzy, excitable five-piece, they then lead you down the street, into an alleyway, through the store room of a chicken shop and up the back stairs into the flat where they all live and write music together.

Inside, the band treat their humble abode like it’s The O2. A pop-up merch stand (a piece of A4 detailing prices for a few items) is set up in the kitchen, before guitarist Verity Hughes leads NME upstairs to the “cinema room,” which is looping the band’s music videos, tour diaries and more on the TV. “This is the room where we formed,” she tells us, delighting in creating the band’s own folklore at such an early stage.

lip filler band — Credit: Richard Mukuze

Across a small number of live shows in the capital and a self-titled debut EP released in May, Lip Filler have developed a reputation as a rowdy, sunny-side-up indie band imbuing their sound and their shows with pure chaos. Inside guitarist Jude Scholefield’s bedroom, they begin their set with ‘Cool’, a track that positions frontman George Tucker as a Jamie T for a new generation, rowdy but thoughtful and always energetic. On ‘Monster Truck’ though, he’s closer to King Krule, sitting on the grubby end of the indie spectrum and letting darkness take over.

Across seven songs, including an encore because – miraculously in 2023 – the neighbours haven’t complained yet, drinks are thrown and cigarettes are burned into the carpet in a set of unbridled energy that rarely feels possible in this age. It also helps that Lip Filler want to play way, way bigger venues than this room.

“All the way to the back!” Hughes shouts out of the bedroom and to the cluster of people watching from the landing to encourage a singalong on ‘Monster Truck’, like she’s on the Pyramid Stage. “We’ve been very extra,” a sweaty Jude tells NME with a smile on the back stairs after the show. “We got a smoke machine and a strobe light!”

In August, Lip Filler will move out of the flat that birthed them and disperse across London. With new music coming, this show, which serves as the end of their first era, is a tantalising glimpse into their ambitions for the future.