LET'S EAT GRANDMA DEVOURS JBTV STAGE

 On a rainy Thursday afternoon, the Norwich band Let’s Eat Grandma—whose name is a comma away from being a familial invitation versus a proposition in ancestral cannibalism—graced the JBTV stage. With our beloved leader Jerry not in attendance due to chemotherapy, the JBTV family pressed on and maintained the energy the space possesses when Jerry is behind the camera.
 
Rocking stylish and comfy clothes, Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth of Let’s Eat Grandma started their set with their single “Hot Pink.” With it’s high energy beats and catchy lyrics, the crowd bobbed their heads to a song the band describes as debunking “the assumptions people make about gender and feminism, and how there’s nothing wrong with being feminine or not at all.” Through the hypnotic synth and entrancing chorus, the crowd fell under the Let’s Eat Grandma trance immediately. 
 
Following “Hot Pink,” Let’s Eat Grandma kept the positive, upbeat energy with their song “It’s Not Just Me”—a song that sounds straight out of a John Hughes movie that was never made. Friendship is a common theme in Let’s Eat Grandma’s catalogue, and “It’s Not Just Me” is no different. The song illustrates the hardships of maintaining relationships as one gets older, and the importance of keeping those friendship alive. A beat and tempo that has the familiar comfort of an inside joke between close friends; it made this writer realize he needs to stay in better contact with his friends. Seriously people, let your friends know how important they are to you.

---

“Falling Into Me” and “I Will Be Waiting” solidified the sheer talent that Walton and Hollingworth possess musically through their constant shifting from instrument to instrument with the ease of seasoned performers. Both Walton and Hollingworth have the young, carefree energy of nineteen-year-old performers, and yet harness the music comprehension, stage presence, and musical complexity of artists who have a backlog of greatest hits. 
 
The musical opus of the show was the last song “Donnie Darko”—a song that’s partly about the movie and partly about the awkwardness of coming of age. Clocking in at over eleven minutes, “Donnie Darko” took the audience on a journey filled with highs and lows. Let’s Eat Grandma further extenuated this ebbing and flowing by starting their performance on the floor with Walton playing the guitar. As the song ramped up and built to a euphoric crescendo, the energy onstage catapulted Let’s Eat Grandma to bring audience members onstage to gel with the rising and falling of the epic song. Like the movie that inspired the song title, “Donnie Darko” leaves the listener with no concrete answers, but ends on a cyclical note with Let’s Eat Grandma wilting back onto the stage floor.

After the audience gradually exited the space, JBTV’s Greg Corner interviewed Let’s Eat Grandma. Through this candid conversation, we learned that Walton and Hollingworth have known each other for the majority of their lives, since they were four, and also have someone close to them battling cancer like Jerry. Their friend Billy is battling a rare form of bone cancer that affects young adults, and if you would like to help with Billy’s fight, donate.
Let’s Eat Grandma has a sound that bundles the synthesized sound of 80s pop, but with the unique, perplexing mood that permeates into a new frontier. The sonic mutation of the familiar that Let’s Eat Grandma peppers into their sound and lyrics, keeps an audience hungry for more.  If you want to experience Let’s Eat Grandma for yourself, you can catch them on tour opening for Chvrches starting in November. To learn more about the band, check out their website.
 
To support the awesomeness that is JBTV, be sure to donate as we strive to innovate JBTV as we continue to break bands and new music.

Photo Credit: Bobby Talamine