The lights turn violent fuchsia and Let’s Eat Grandma throw themselves at new single Hot Pink, moving in sync behind twin keyboards. Backed by a live drummer, the track crunches slick, threatening bass against Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth’s taunting, faux-naive vocals: “On my pony in the sky / I just want anything and everything.” Co-produced by the avant-garde Sophie, known for sticky beats that turn pop inside out, and Faris Badwan of dream-goth outfit the Horrors, it’s a distinctly clubbier, late-night development of Let’s Eat Grandma’s eerie psych-pop.
Slight, serious, and with centre-parted manes of thick curly hair, best friends Walton and Hollingworth look uncannily alike. They started writing songs together aged 13, and three years later released their debut I, Gemini (2016) to a wave of critical acclaim. By turns sinister and sugary, the Norwich duo twisted a world from playground hand-claps, gothic singsong, starry saxophone instrumentals and a recorder solo. With second album I’m All Ears due in June, tonight’s show draws heavily from their new material with planned imprecision. They still sound like little else around.
For second new single Falling Into Me, a warped disco epic, Walton dances with awkward limbs and languid squats borrowed from noughties pop, disrupted by the need to attend to the track’s many mood swings. A new ballad, sung by Hollingworth, is open-hearted and glittering, a rewarding detour from the pop cuts released so far from I’m All Ears. On more familiar ground for older song Deep Six Textbook, Stereo’s audience cheer in recognition of the hazy, unravelling psychedelia, and the duo whip tousled curls in stoner hair-ography.
Donnie Darko, an unreleased live track pegged for the new album, closes the show: a monumental, unhurried surge that sounds like subwoofers bleeding through a wall. Hollingworth throws aside her recorder to run through the crowd, hands in the air, feeling out the response. It’s an accomplished performance from formidably talented oddities, but one that feels more a teaser than a full unveiling of Let’s Eat Grandma’s newest secrets.
• On tour until 27 September, see letseatgrandma for details.
