"Oh good lord, we brought the banjo!" Larkin Poe bring southern sugar and smarts to London on their biggest ever UK headline show

There are times during Larkin Poe’s set – in front of thousands – when it’s as if Megan and Rebecca Lovell are the only two people in the room. Live music lifers at 36 and 34, they’re commanding, attentive performers who naturally engage with their onlookers. Right away there’s a sense that we’re in good hands.

But when the sisters turn to face each other – harmonising with that slightly supernatural instinct unique to siblings – we’re transported briefly to rural Georgia. Transported through voices first shaped by their childhood in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, building forts in the woods, reading books instead of watching TV, singing together because it was fun.

With 2025 album Bloom at the heart of this UK tour, themed motifs are plentiful. The towering floral backdrop looks a bit like your granny’s curtains, albeit in a quietly chic sort of way. Little trees are dotted across the stage. Coupled with the preset tones of Arthur Crudup's That’s Alright Mama and Tony Joe White’s Polk Salad Annie, it sets a vibe. Old timey but not ‘old’. Not too obvious, but obvious enough.

A prerecorded medley of rootsy, flower-centred tunes plays, as the three men in Larkin Poe who aren’t the Lovells (drummer Ben Satterlee, bassist Tarka Layman and new, fresh-out-of-university keyboardist Lucas Pettee) head on first. It’s all very cute – very Dolly Parton in a meadow.

But then out stride Megan and Rebecca, down-to-earth sweethearts *and* total fucking rockstars as they wave to the whooping crowd and dive into a mighty Nowhere Fast. Big southern beefcake riffs. Rock’n’roll swagger with a smile. Those vocal and guitar harmonies. Instantly colouring outside the lines of what a rock band ‘should’ look like.

Leaning into Bloom’s warm Americana melodies for much of the set – spliced by earlier blues rock cuts like Bleach Blonde Bottle Blues – they occupy a juicy spot between old hill country, classic rock and Sheryl Crow that’s both familiar and very much theirs. Slide-playing sister Megan makes like Joe Walsh and Bonnie Raitt in the body of a 36-year-old woman from Georgia. Younger sibling Rebecca has a huge lead voice and proper guitar hero licks that she deploys seamlessly.

You’d never think she gave birth to her first kid (with husband Tyler Bryant) ten weeks ago, until she stumbles over the lyrics of Bluephoria but picks up, ‘fesses up (“I’m sorry, I’m so sleep-deprived…” she half-laughs) and carries on without dropping a beat. Next minute she’s going all cosmic, gesticulating preacher as they bring their motherland to Hammersmith via the primal blues of If God Is A Woman, all smoky evocations of rural churches and deserted green highways through the American south.

But it’s Southern Comfort – the first track in a mid-set acoustic section – that generates the biggest cheer so far. A solid track on 2023’s Blood Harmony record, it acquires a new, haunting poignancy in this bare-bones form, their bandmates leaning into the mic for multipart harmonies. Suddenly it’s like being in the Grand Ole Opry.

“Oh good lord, we brought the banjo!” Rebecca grins, as their bluegrass beginnings in The Lovell Sisters (fronted by oldest sister Jessica, who left to get married and go to college) bubble to the surface.

Perhaps the best thing about Larkin Poe in a live setting: the range of flavours at their fingertips. Stunning, could-hear-a-pin-drop acoustic versions? No problem. Boot-stomping Black Crowes richness? They’ve got that. Clever, bluesy, scale-hopping guitar solos? They can do those too (and unlike so many of their peers, they don’t noodle past their welcome).

They amp up again in time for a shot of War Pigs (because of course everyone’s doing their Ozzy bit onstage these days – but they do it well), freaky preacher vibes in Bad Spell and a raucously satisfying, loose-limbed yet biting Pearls – their sole explicit ‘fuck you’ to the casual sexism faced over Larkin Poe’s 15 years, their fresh faces belying the thousands of hours and trips round the block under their belts.

Wanted Woman/AC/DC leads into the countrified ZZ Top shuffle of Bolt Cutters & The Family Name. “Life is short, we gotta have a good time,” Rebecca calls out as the last chops are laid down and Bloom Again sends us home on a gentle but searing note.

More than ever, Larkin Poe feel like part of a generation pushing themselves to write better and better songs – and nailing them on their own terms. Their music, their look, their record label, their relationship with the online world. A modern day ‘cottage industry’ that’s reaped Grammys, TV spots, a large, devoted fanbase.

Nothing to prove, everything to gain.

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