Violet Grohl Quietly Commands the Metro Stage
By: Shawna O’Hara, Editor – Photo by James Scully
There was little ambiguity about whom the crowd at Metro had come to see Thursday night.
SUGAR stretched across the chests of a largely middle-aged audience, many of whom spent the time before the show swapping stories about Bob Mould and the band with anyone willing to listen. This was a crowd with history. They had memories attached to these songs, stories attached to this band, and more than three decades of anticipation behind their arrival at the barricade.
Violet Grohl had about 30 minutes to interrupt all of that.
At first, the room was quiet. Two songs later, it wasn’t.
Grohl, who is currently on tour promoting her debut album, Be Sweet to Me, opened with the buzzy, crunchy “Bug in the Cake,” a song she crafted after moving into the home of her late grandmother, Virginia Grohl. Grohl has spoken about televisions mysteriously flickering back to life after she’d switched them off, often tuned to her grandmother’s favorite news channel, and the comforting possibility that some part of her might still inhabit the house.
From there, the set moved quickly. “THUM” gave way to hits like “Cool Buzz,” “Often Others,” and the melancholy “Big Memory,” with Grohl ultimately leaving herself just enough time to close with the haunting “Applefish.”
And somewhere in those first few songs, the room changed.
Shouts began coming from the crowd. Applause swelled into full-room ovations, filling Metro in a way that seemed disproportionate to the relatively still figure responsible for it. Grohl hadn’t done much to solicit their attention. She hadn’t needed to.
Grohl is soft-spoken onstage, carrying herself with a quiet confidence that initially feels almost at odds with the force of her voice. Dressed in a cream lace tank over a long, black leather-esque skirt and embellished flats, she looked perfectly Victorian-meets-alt-rock, a visual extension of the music rather than a costume.
And then she sang.
At just 20 years old, Grohl’s voice is powerful, with a range that moves from sweet to absolutely take-no-prisoners without either register feeling put on. It has a distinctly ’90s alternative quality, not imitation so much as a deep-rooted affinity for the era’s contrasts, where beauty and abrasion can occupy the same song. She can sound delicate without shrinking and forceful without simply getting loud.
Curiously, watching her perform evokes something much older. Grohl makes minimal use of the stage, often staying planted at the microphone with her eyes closed, letting the songs come to her rather than physically chasing them around the room. Paired with the control and character of her voice, the effect is almost that of a jazz crooner dropped into an alternative-rock band: still, self-possessed and content to let her voice provide the movement.
Her band supplies the kinetic counterweight, playing with an enthusiasm that surrounds Grohl’s stillness without overwhelming it. The combination keeps the performance from ever feeling static. Instead, everything seems to orbit the singer at its center.
If any element of Grohl’s live performance is still finding its footing, it is pacing. The first three songs Thursday seemed to pass almost on top of one another, leaving little space for either performer or audience to settle into the set. But as the evening progressed, so did Grohl’s rhythm with the room.
What was already present, however, was the kind of restraint that often takes performers considerably longer to develop. Grohl doesn’t appear frightened of stillness. She doesn’t fill every silence, manufacture movement for its own sake or oversell a song’s emotional stakes. There is a maturity to the way she trusts the material, and herself, to hold attention.
The audience provided fairly convincing evidence that the trust was warranted.
These were not people who had wandered into Metro without an agenda. Sugar was still written across their chests. Their stories about Mould and his impact on their lives hadn’t disappeared. But within two songs, the room that had greeted Grohl quietly was shouting back at her. By the end of her roughly 30-minute set, she had managed one of the more difficult assignments given to any opener: making an audience deeply invested in what came later become genuinely invested in what was happening now.
The quiet confidence with which Grohl had arrived no longer felt quiet.
She hadn’t gotten louder; the room had.
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Violet Grohl Tour Dates:
09.22.26 – Higher Ground -South Burlington, VT
09.24.26 – Crystal Ballroom – Somerville, MA
09.26.26 – CBGB 2026 – Brooklyn, NY
25 — 27 Sep 26 – All Things Go 2026 – Columbia, MD
10.03.26 – Jacaranda Baltic – Liverpool
10.04.26 – Thekla – Bristol – SOLD OUT
10.07.26 – Dork Magazine – London – SOLD OUT
10.08.26 – Chalk – Brighton
10.10.26 – Limelight – Belfast
10.11.26 – The Academy, Middle Abbey Street – Dublin
10.22.26 – Hollywood Theatre – Vancouver
10.23.26 – Star Theater – Portland, OR
10.25.26 – Barboza – Seattle, WA – SOLD OUT
10.27.26 – Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA
10.29.26 – Constellation Room – Santa Ana, CA – SOLD OUT
11.13.26 – The Rebel Lounge – Phoenix, AZ – SOLD OUT
11.14.26 – Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
11.17.26 – Bluebird Theater – Denver, CO
20 — 22 Nov 26 – Corona Capital 2026 – Ciudad De México
11.30.26 – Zenith Paris – La Villette – Paris
12.02.26 – AFAS Live – Amsterdam
12.03.26 – AFAS Live – Amsterdam
12.04.26 – The Powerlines Tour – Bruxelles
12.06.26 – The Powerlines Tour – Berlin
12.07.26 – The Powerlines Tour – Dusseldorf
12.10.26 – King Tuts Wah Wah Hut – Glasgow
12.11.26 – Manchester Academy – Manchester
09 — 10 Jan 27 – rockin’on sonic 2027 – Koto City, Tokyo
Links:
Violet Grohl:
Official: https://www.violetgrohl.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/viioletgrohl/