Concert Review: Suprise Chef at the Lodge Room, Los Angeles, CA

Show rating: 5/5

“I was thinking we could incorporate this somehow?” Surprise Chef’s guitarist Lachlan Stuckey opens a pastry box to reveal rainbow frosting and the cartoon cat from their latest album’s cover, Superb. My brain, true to form, “I’ve got an idea that probably can’t be done before the show, or at all.” Lachlan sees where I’m going and smiles. “I think we’re trying to… preserve it,” he laughs, genuine glee, and the overall spirit Surprise Chef brought to the evening. Between them and their team, there was a unified sense of awe. Just kind humans, happy to be there.

State Bound from Australia, an instrumental hybrid of funk, soul, and jazz, Surprise Chef’s new

album is more expansive than experimental territory. Whether conscious intent or not, as an American I find Superb to be an ode to anti-capitalist mindsets. It features eleven tracks, all recorded live and in single takes. Hard stop, that alone deserves attention. The amount of trust and presence it takes to do this–a rejection of perfectionism that frees oneself of rigidity around perceived outcome. As raw and as true, I was curious how this would translate in an intimate venue capped at 450. Friday night in Los Angeles, sold out at the Lodge Room.

Before the show began, it was your standard pre-show observations. Loud chatter, people bustling to and from, huddled in their groups, heads down with faces lit by screens that featured dating apps and Instagram doom scrolls. Then each band member took their spot on stage, which also included Jethro Curtin on keys, Carl Lindeberg on bass, Andrew Congues on drums, and Hudson Whitlock on percussion, and right into ‘Sleep Dreams’, the first track of Superb. The song’s minute long intro felt like a magnetic pull as Surprise Chef let the music speak–an invitation to their soundscape eagerly accepted by the crowd. Song after song with hardly a pause, as warm, vibrant grooves transformed the space into a trance where time ceased to exist, bodies melted, and minds eased. The audience was equally locked into the energy that the band put out. A brain massage of epic proportions and before you know it, the house lights flicked back on and a noticeable transformation was revealed. As if a lull washed over disconnections that filled the ‘waiting period’ before the show, had since been replaced by a palpable sense of lightness.

To let loose and let be, that’s a sacred state of presence and no small feat in today’s world. It’s 2025, after all. While that’s precisely what Surprise Chef offered–a night of music and energy that transcended modern day noise.