Every now and then, there’s a gig so promising that people seem to run to the merch stand to buy a piece of history. When the lights come back up, and the applause rips through the room, there’s a distinct sense of witnessing something, feeling a new star ascend right there in front of you, leaving crowds rushing for a T-shirt with a voice in their gut saying that one day, this garment will be a major bragging right.

Earlier this week, at Paper Dress Vintage in Hackney, Luvcat’s debut headline gig did just that as the girls fought over branded silk panties, all wanting a piece of the assured next big thing.

It’s a tough feeling to try and describe, but it’s one that’s obvious when felt. ‘One to watch’ is a label thrown around frivolously nowadays. It’s almost like we need to come up with some other phrase or some higher golden tier for the ones that truly deserve it. The ones that exist there are the artists that seem to emerge like a fully formed thing, already laying down their golden path but one that is unique and singular, one that they’re tunnel-visioned on and will not falter from.

We saw it with Picture Parlour, who refused to rush their plans, instead holding steady on their nostalgia-dripped glory without compromise. We saw it stronger than we have in a long time with The Last Dinner Party, a band whose rise could be studied over and over but simply comes down to pure vision and talent. 

Now, I’ll place a bet that we’ll see it with Luvcat. With the launch of her independently released debut single, ‘Matador’, which earned her half a million streams in only a couple of weeks, there hasn’t been such a promising introductory track since ‘Nothing Matters’. As she stepped onto the stage at Paper Dress, already commanding the room with her clear style and artistic world, she embodied that same sense of merely opening the door and letting fans rush in rather than going chasing after them with trendy fads or any willingness to find any mid-ground.

Immediately, it’s her way or no way.

And her way is incredible. Luvcat walked onto the stage looking as if Cruella Deville had landed in Liverpool and merged high glamour with Victorian gothic. As she launches into her first song, moving her body like a wind-up doll, she sings in a cute, characterful voice, “Come play with me”. It’s like watching a full production. There isn’t a drop of nonchalance involved; there is no holding back. Instead, from start to finish, Luvcat’s tracks all feel like full-scale theatre, with narratives to sink your teeth into, instrumentation that acts like a soundtrack and her voice leading the way, dipping between rock glory and bratty whines. 

Sometimes, a gig for a new artist can feel somewhat stale as the audience doesn’t know the words, but in the case of Luvcat, everyone left feeling hungry for them, with verses they’d never heard before already on loop in minds. The songs she has up her sleeve are incredible. ‘Love and Money’ is an anthemic yet seductive outing that will sound just as good on huge stages as it will on boudoir playlists.

‘He’s My Man’ is a dark, gothic offering that captures this kind of desperate, scary character she dips into so well. ‘Alchemy’ is nothing short of a siren call. ‘Bad Books’ feels like a theme tune for the star, weaving tales of mischief into a full-crowd singalong of ‘The Lovecats’, The Cure song that gave her her name. I want to hear every single song again, and clearly, so do plenty of other people as videos of her gigs are racking up views on YouTube and TikToks of her unreleased tracks are poured over to the point that the crowd was partially singing along to ‘Dinner At Brasserie Zedel’, joining in on the hooking chorus of “When are you gonna make me your baby?”

That’s exactly how it was with The Last Dinner Party, as bootlegged videos of their gigs made the rounds and their circle of fans grew and grew. That’s how it happened with really all the biggest bands in history, as they claim it only takes one great song to make a breakthrough, one great, catchy, visionary track that makes a star. Well, Luvcat has about six or seven of them. ‘Matador’ was just the start, and I’d bet any money on that.