Live Review: Grandson - The Underworld, London 22/05/2019
Woke minded rapper Grandson is quickly making a name for himself, his fluid mix of rap, rock and electronic music is seamless; every song he seems to release is an instant classic! Just prior to his anticipated set at this year’s Slam Dunk Festival he announced two headline shows in Glasgow and London, we were lucky enough to catch him at the latter…
Psychedelic rockers Allusinlove were this evenings opener, a strong nirvana meets hair metal vibe, every song capturing that shredding guitar and deafening vocals that could shatter bulletproof glass! The bands song ‘Full Circle’ was a true hit, lead singer Jason throwing back his sweat dripping hair while mesmerising the crowd with his impressive vocal range. A quick interlude got onto the subject of Nigel Farage, let’s just say Allusinlove aren’t big fans; a gigantic chant of ‘Fuck Nigel’ boomed from the depths of Camden’s Underworld before the bands crashed back into their set! Ending with fan favourite ‘All Good People’ shook the venue to its core, they then proceeded to shower the audience with handmade Allusinlove memorabilia (including badges, stickers and even condoms!).
As the room was thrown into complete darkness, the faint sound of guitar echoed out of the speakers as Grandson and his band flew out on stage; without further ado, they brought out the big guns and hit the audience with a back to back banger fest, ‘Stigmata’ and then ‘6:00’ turned the room into a warzone!! Grandson’s ability to create such hard hitting songs and still deliver a powerful message either from his personal past or the past of others is truly inspiring, ‘Overdose’ and ‘Darkside’ were next to be played and they did just as we described, the huge choruses flew the audience into chaos while the keen eared members of the group would be able to pick up the true meaning of drug/drink misuse and gun violence. Originally being a solo act, Grandson’s addition of a full band brings another level to his performance, he also explains that it’s not as lonely on stage before blasting into ‘Best Friends’. Going back to our earlier statement about every song this guy brings out being an instant classic is proven when the intro to newest single ‘Apologize’ plays out, a huge cheer from the crowd before the mass singing every word back to him. Final song of the set was by far his biggest song to date, ‘Blood // Water’ is a non-stop thrill ride, handing out water bottles just before; as soon as the infamous chorus came in the room turned into a tsunami of water being thrown all over! The majority of the crowd looking like they had just took a trip on a log flume ride at the theme park.
As a bonus, we even got a banging encore, older single ‘Kiss Bang’ for the OG fans and for people who are newer ‘Bills’; both got enormous reactions of excitement from the audience as well as us!
Grandson is a special kind of musician; his unique blend of genres and emotionally invested messages give everything he does a whole other meaning. As he continues to bring out hit after hit, the number of Grandkids is growing and before long he’s going to be unstoppable!
Words and photography by Joe Dick