Von Hertzen Brothers – Garage, London – 16th November 2017

When I arrived at the venue for tonight’s gig things didn’t look good. With just 20 minutes before Toseland were due on stage the venue was almost empty. Happily in the last ten minutes before they came on, the place quickly started to fill up, and by the end of their set the place was fairly busy – on a night when there were numerous other gigs on in London including Alice Cooper, it showed that Von Hertzen Brothers are good enough to still draw a crowd.

Toseland had a short set – strangely short in fact at just 25 minutes leaving a very generous 35 minutes changeover before VHB. Despite the short set, Toseland managed to get through a six song set. I thought the sound was pretty poor – something a fellow photographer also commented on, although it did seem to get a bit better towards the end. They’d got plenty of fans in the audience judging by the reception they got. Personally I felt they took a while to really get going but towards the end of the set they were firing on all cylinders.

After Toseland, the crew cleared their kit off the stage and set up for Von Hertzen Brothers. The 35 minute break was far too long as everything was ready around 15 minutes before VHB were due on stage – so Toseland could have had an extra 10 minutes added to their set and still left the headliners with ample time for the changeover. Frustrating.

Right from the start, Von Hertzen Brothers totally outclassed Toseland – musically and in their stage presence and performance, and the support Toseland had was dwarfed by the support for Von Hertzen Brothers.
With a lot of Prog bands there is a tendency to stay fairly still as they play due to the complexity of the music, but not Von Hertzen Brothers – their music may be complex at times but that doesn’t deter them from moving around and really letting their energy and enthusiasm show as they play.
While I love their albums, live the band are a very different beast – heavier and with more energy to it, it’s so much more enjoyable. A fantastic set.

Setlist:
War is over
The arsonist
Jerusalem
Coming home
Miracle
Long lost sailor
Kiss a wish
Flowers and rust
Frozen butterflies
Sunday child
Gloria
Beyond the storm

Insomniac
New day rising

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