REVIEWS
Van der Graaf Generator
Van der Graaf Generator: truly one of a kind.
WILL IRELAND
London Palladium
Powerful live return for the veteran progressive trio.
★ There aren’t many bands that could pair a Zeppelin-esque guitar stomp and frantic Hammond runs with lyrics about losing your glasses, mobile and OAP mind. But then there aren’t many bands like Van der Graaf Generator. All That Before, from 2008’s Trisector, is just one jewel in tonight’s crown as the trio finally play dates scheduled nearly two years ago, with a two-set show conveyed with fizz and attack.
The minimalist Interference Patterns – Peter Hammill and Hugh Banton sitting face-to-face on keyboards across the stage – sets the tone for gently unsettling the audience with brain-bending ‘Are they playing this wrong?’ sequences, before presenting a rightly savage Every Bloody Emperor, “A song we have to do,” says Hammill, on the day we learn of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.