At just 20 years old, Violet Grohl is already navigating the difficult territory of establishing herself as an artist in her own right while carrying one of rock music’s most recognisable surnames. Her debut LP, Be Sweet To Me, released in May this year, has already drawn critical acclaim. While the past week has seen her perform to filled-to-the-brim Canopy Stage crowds at the twin Reading & Leeds Festivals, tonight’s second of two London shows at Camden’s Barfly, offers an intimate opportunity to see the young singer-songwriter developing that identity on stage.
Violet Grohl @ Barfly
The tiny confines of Barfly feel almost impossibly small for a musician attracting this level of attention. Yet Grohl makes the most of the venue’s intimate setting, delivering a raw, tightly wound set that feels more like a glimpse into an emerging artist’s world than a conventional headline performance.
Having played the venue the previous night, Grohl is clearly delighted to be back. “Hi, London. Super stoked for our second night here,” she announces before launching into Bug In The Cake, a song dedicated to her grandmother, Virginia. It is an appropriately personal opening, immediately establishing the intimate tone that runs through the evening.
There is little in the way of conventional rock-star theatrics. Grohl remains rooted to the same position at centre stage, hunched over her microphone for virtually the entire performance. While her four-piece band squeezes every possible movement into the tiny spaces afforded to them by the Barfly stage, Grohl is effectively pinned in place. The physical restraint, however, only intensifies the focus on her voice, which is simply stunning, and the songs.
The early run through THUM, Last Day I Loved You and the jagged Cool Buzz demonstrates a developing songwriting voice that balances vulnerability with an often abrasive edge. Grohl rarely pauses for lengthy explanations, instead allowing the songs to do much of the talking, although her between-song comments make clear just how much she is enjoying the experience. “This is my favourite city,” she tells the room at one point, a sentiment greeted warmly by an audience already packed tightly into the venue.
There is an appealing looseness to the performance. Grohl occasionally introduces songs with a slightly nervous enthusiasm, but once the music begins, the uncertainty disappears. Stimulant Breakfast, one of two songs performed during the evening that are not yet released, is introduced as “one of our favourites to do live”, giving the audience an early glimpse of material beyond her debut album.
The new track sits naturally alongside the existing material, suggesting that Grohl’s musical direction is continuing to develop rather than being confined to the songs already familiar to listeners. For an artist still only 20, there is an encouraging sense that Be Sweet To Me represents a starting point rather than a finished statement.
Violet Grohl @ Barfly
A particularly welcome curveball arrives with a cover of Ween’s Transdermal Celebration. Grohl explains that the band are big Ween fans, and the choice feels less like a predictable crowd-pleaser and more like an insight into the musical world surrounding her. The performance gives the set a different texture while still fitting comfortably into the slightly skewed, introspective atmosphere established by the original material.
By the time jangly Big Memory arrives, the room is fully locked into the performance. There is no need for spectacle when the audience is standing only feet away from the band (some barely inches), every glance and movement visible. Ethereal Mobile Star follows after Grohl finally pauses to introduce the band on stage with her tonight, including a husband and wife rhythm section. The introductions add another small personal touch to a show that continually feels more like a shared experience than a formal presentation.
Applefish evokes Wolf Alice and pushes the mood further into darker, more atmospheric territory, before Grohl unveils another unreleased song, Sun Is Blind. Once again, she stresses how much the band enjoy playing the track live. It is one of the evening’s most intriguing moments, hinting at a broader musical palette still to come. The stripped-back staging works particularly well here. With Grohl remaining almost completely stationary, the music and lyrics have nowhere to hide. There is no elaborate production to distract from the performances, and the small room amplifies every detail.
The penultimate stretch brings 595 before Often Others, with Grohl beginning to acknowledge that the evening is drawing towards its conclusion. She thanks the London crowd for being “so amazing” and for turning out for the show, before introducing the final number. The melencholy two-chord verses of Plastic Couch bring the main set to a close, with Grohl once again remaining hunched over the microphone as the band delivers the evening’s final full-band passage. The response from the Barfly crowd makes it clear that the audience is not quite ready for the night to finish.
Violet Grohl @ Barfly
The audience response nevertheless makes it clear that the evening is not quite ready to finish. There is, however, an unusual twist to the expected encore. The printed setlist includes two additional, non-album tracks — Swallowtail and Sun God — but neither is played. Instead, Grohl does not return to the stage, while the band members subsequently reappear without her to begin packing away their equipment. It is a slightly anticlimactic conclusion to an otherwise compelling performance, but it also feels strangely fitting for a show that consistently resists convention. There is no grand finale, no carefully choreographed goodbye and no attempt to manufacture a bigger moment than the songs themselves warrant.
What remains is the impression of an artist still finding her feet in front of an audience, but already possessing a distinctive musical identity. At Barfly, Violet Grohl does not try to overpower the room. She simply occupies its centre, head bowed over the microphone, while her band works around her and the songs gradually fill every available inch. For a second consecutive night in one of London’s smallest venues, that proves more than enough. The challenge now is perhaps the same one facing any young artist carrying a famous surname: to make the inevitable comparisons increasingly irrelevant.
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Violet Grohl @ Barfly (Kalpesh Patel)
Live review and photography of Violet Grohl @ Barfly, London by Kalpesh Patel on 2nd September 2026.
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