It’s up for debate when exactly Grandma’s House last played in Nottingham. With a little help from the crowd, it’s narrowed down to sometime in 2021 that they last occupied The Bodega stage. The intervening four years have seen the group iterate and further define their sound, moving the needle from post-punk to what feels tonight more like garage-rock, leading to a barnstorming gig that's a throwback to the early-00s, as fun as it is fierce...
More than ably supported by City Lights and Push Rope, the latter of whom sound more like a tight unit with each gig, the crowd are suitably riled up and ready for the headliners. Starting with the infectious, insistent No Place Like Home – one of the band’s earliest singles, from 2020 – Grandma’s House tonight present a statement of intent and showcase their journey as a group and how they’ve developed together.
Singer Yasmin Berndt’s voice is flecked with grit as she takes us through Feed Me, Screw It Up and Always Happy. The lyrics she half-sings and half-snarls are darkly ironic and laced with a healthy dose of acerbic cynicism as she rails against the mundane injustices of the patriarchal world and the pitfalls of love, loss and self-image. ‘If I don’t think then I’ll be alright’, she sings at one point, the line as incisive and pithy as they come.
If it seems like a backhanded compliment to the highlight of the gig is the song that sounds unlike any of the others, it’s not intended. Rather, Haunt Me is simply a gorgeous tune. Stripped back and emotionally open, the songs main vocals come from Poppy Dodgson from behind the drums. Her falsetto is sweet but not saccharine, and the backing harmonies provided by the rest of the band create an even more intimate feel.
Considering the song stands alone as the only slow number, the atmosphere created is instant, effective and memorable.
Back behind the kit, Dodgson demonstrates her skill as the metronomic backbone of the band, a spine that allows the other members to run amok, to push harder on their instruments. Bassist Zoë Zinsmeister provides a thumping and loping low end, both of them on flawless form as the band race through a massive seventeen songs in 60 minutes.
Despite that mammoth list of tracks to get through, the band find time to interact with the audience. Remarkably at ease and laid back, they succeed in creating an atmosphere that allows the audience to become slightly more loose, more receptive. Through a blistering run of new songs; Choo Choo, Table and D.O.G, the band display a more muscular, savage sound. It includes an added grit that doesn’t replace their signature style, but augments it with a touch more depth; a few more smartly added layers.
By the time the gig ends with Pasty, from the eponymous 2021 EP, Grandma’s House have delivered what I would consider the platonic ideal of what a gig like this should be. It’s just so nourishing to see artists clearly having a ball on stage, in command of their instruments and fearlessly presenting themselves to an audience.
These are the kind of gigs that can easily be forgotten amid the constant churn of the event economy, where huge, impersonal arena shows and recurring big names increasingly dominate the industry. But there is something vital in these shows, in people performing for the love of it. Something that needs to stay.
Grandma's House performed at The Bodega on 22nd October 2025.
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