Let's Eat Grandma @ Open
A truly special evening.
Where have you been living if you don’t know Let’s Eat Grandma, the two Norwich teenagers with a passion for all things weird? Launching their debut album I, Gemini in style at Open, it’s plain to see that these two bright young things are on the cusp of something big.
Ginny Dix is our opening act. Her solo vocal/piano performance is delivered nervously, but a lathering of audio effects nudges the set from generic to intriguing. It’s downbeat and beautiful, for fans of Shura and Daughter. Up next is Birds of Hell, a wonderfully interesting character (a.k.a. Pete, as he introduces himself). Visually he could be Jesse Hughes portrayed by Noel Fielding, or something equally abstract yet dashing. And the music is just as whimsical. Snake noises, bells on shoes and samples of dead relatives are all twisted together in a pastiche of temperamental storytelling, made real through a dry voice and a dryer wit. Different tones and narratives accompany each song, but a downbeat, spoken-word drawl is present throughout. Leonard Cohen, John Cooper Clarke, and Kate Tempest are all valid comparisons, but in this reviewer’s opinion you’d really be best to catch him live and decide for yourself.
Headliner time can’t come soon enough for Let’s Eat Grandma’s first hometown performance in far too long. Tonight, Open brims with fans new and old, all united with anticipation for the show we’re about to see. As the unmistakeable drum clicks of Deep Six Textbook pound into the room, Rosa and Jenny fall into character with heads hung low and faces obscured by thick hair. They don matching outfits head to toe, the images of space splattered across their tops adding to the mystical ambience. A row of friends and fans are sat eagerly just in front of the stage, creating a wonderfully intimate atmosphere.
Eat Shiitake Mushrooms is led into seamlessly. The intricacy of the track feels muted slightly in a live setting; the synths and sequencers that bubble and mix organically on record have a much more 2D feel tonight, but this quality does add to the cosiness of tonight’s performance. And, with delightfully amusing stage personas coupled with astonishing musical skill, no one could say it’s not entertaining. Between the two of them, keyboards are played, recorders make an appearance, there’s a mandolin, a glockenspiel, guitars and a drum kit, any of which can crop up at a moment’s notice. The girls run back and forth around the stage multiple times per song, sharing instruments and interacting in ways seen rarely in any popular bands today. There’s a little roughness around the edges in places, but the ornate control and choreography these two young performers hold is truly awe-inspiring.
Rapunzel closes Act One with a bolder sound than on the album, courtesy of a little kick-drum action, before Sink leads into the second half of the show, with a more hip-hop feel compared to the ethereal flurry that we’ve experienced so far. It gets one of the best reactions as the most ‘pop’ sounding song in the set, as well as one of the more lyrically driven. The epic monster that is Donnie Darko closes the show in a thirteen-minute extravaganza of beeps and blips, layered gradually over one another with guitar murmurs and keyboard buzzes mixing in accordingly. The duo conduct their signature handclap routine, when they’re not lying perfectly still on the floor. Or twiddling with pedals and boxes sat cross-legged and seemingly oblivious to the audience, making for a bizarrely voyeuristic experience, as if we’re all sat together on a bedroom floor trying to make music together. It’s beautiful and fun and absolutely unlike anything else you’ll see in the pop scene today.
The show ends with a synchronised “thank you” – the pair’s only ad lib in the whole performance – before rapturous hometown applause marks the end of a truly special evening.
