Grandmas House - The Exchange - 4th March 2023

For those who know the phrase ‘going to Grandma’s House’ as slang for getting drunk, their name seems obvious as instinct for a band that have kids across the country getting debauched. On tour for their new extended play, ‘Who Am I’, Bristol-based Grandmas House take on the task of painting their hometown red.

Despite the set being riddled with technical issues – smoke curtains the stage with heavy-mist fog, and mics stay silent – Grandmas House lean into it. It gives the gig a garage, do-it-yourself appeal, and their ability to pull off what should have been polished in such a heavyweight way is what makes the band so essential to the city’s music scene.

Yas, the frontman and guitarist, is all huskiness and gravel; she preaches punk from the pulpit. She summons up mosh pits that begin but never really seem to end. For ‘Pasty’ – the song written about a woman working in one of Bristol’s bakeries – the crowd becomes all arms and legs; anarchic moving parts of one great, conflicted machine.

On songs like ‘How Does It Feel?’, ‘Golden’, and ‘Girl’, wit burns through their punk like a cigarette cherry on a blazer. Ears are ringing for all the right reasons.

Zoë and her outsize bass circle the stage like it’s leading her in a dance. It speaks to the co-ordination these girls have. Poppy – the drummer and one of the vocalists - explained after the set that they all live together, and it shows in the music. They know what they’re doing, and they see each other from the inside out. If one of them is out of step on the path to Grandma’s, the others outstretch a firm hand.

Later, Poppy says that this has been the best crowd they’ve ever had, and it might well explain why they play well on into the night, far after curfew. When a night’s as good as this, why call time?