Van Der Graaf Generator
London Barbican
27th March, 2011

You’ve got to love them. VDGG’s return continues with admirable pace. Three slightly disgruntled geography-masters continue to play their wilfully singular music with little regard for the passing years, fads or fashion. They lock in in spectacular fashion. Only four numbers in the 13-song set come from the 20th century; this reunion is no slave to the past. The songs from this year’s A Grounding In Numbers form the set’s spine – Mr. Sands is infectiously catchy; Your Time Is Now gets the closest to a linear ballad all evening, while Mathematics is suitably knotty. 2008’s Trisector is well represented also. The biggest cheers come for Childlike Faith In Childlike’s End, La Rossa, Scorched Earth and a version of Lemmings, with leader Peter Hammill slashing at his Les Paul like someone who’s only recently picked it up. This man can still be Nadir.