Take a bow
WILL IRELAND VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
VENUE THE LONDON PALLADIUM DATE 24/02/2022
The much postponed tour by Van der Graaf Generator is taking place at last, and there’s a lot of love in the room on tonight’s London date. The applause after every song, which includes a number of standing ovations, is rather like that which might accompany a lifetime achievement accolade at an awards ceremony. Not that the band show anything like entitlement or complacency.
The first half of the set largely features songs recorded since their reformation in 2005, starting with Interference Patterns with its crisscrossing keyboard lines and agitated rhythms. Hammill’s earlier material for the group was lyrically more metaphorical or dealt with characters and scenarios. But mirroring the themes in his solo work, in these more recent group creations he addresses mortality and the passing of time in an unflinching way on the epic Over The Hill; and more humorously on All That Before, an account of age-related forgetfulness and confusion set to shifting patterns of gonzo fuzz-guitar riffage.