On Wednesday, November 19th, English indie folk band Tors played a show in Hamburg at the Mojo Club. They have been in Hamburg before playing as support for others, but this was their first ever headline show in the city.
First on stage tonight was the English singer Jo Hill. She walked on stage and said “Hello Hamburg, how are we doing?”, to which the crowd cheered. Alongside her on stage was backing vocalist and guitarist Kinga Hornik. They started with the song ‘POW GIRL’. Both their guitars didn’t work for a second during it, but that didn’t stop them from continuing on. Loud applause could be heard afterwards. Hill then talked about her being from a town called Cheddar and that she loves the Glastonbury Festival, which is very close to where she grew up. She used this story to introduce the song ‘Glastonbury’, named after and written about said festival.
Hill released her debut album Girlhood. last year and stated that “to me, the message of girlhood is the ferocious commitment to being as open and honest as humanly possible”. She “wanted to spread that message”, which is why she wrote the song ‘BIG BOYS CRY TOO’ for a family member of hers “that was stuck in his own head for a very long time”. The person felt like they couldn’t speak about their feelings. Hill said she would’ve loved being able to listen to a song like this when she was younger. Before playing the song, she animated the men in the crowd to say “hello” to a man next to them, to possibly even give them a hug. Hill then continued with the newer tracks ‘Crazy Bitch’, saying that this was only the second time ever playing it live, and ‘Pea in a Cave’. She wrote the latter about the concept of pregnancy and one’s child growing up and eventually moving out. Hill also spoke about her missing her mom and dedicated the song to the moms and grandmothers out and about in the world.
“This has been an incredible gig,” Hill said, asking the crowd to step up as percussionists, since they didn’t have enough budget to hire a drummer. Then the last song of the set started, called ‘ZOOM OUT’. Hill walked off the stage as Hornink handed out the setlists to some fans, who had been enthusiastically clapping multiple times throughout the set.
Next up was Tors themselves. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Matt Weedon, guitarist Theo Weedon, and multi-instrumentalist Jack Bowden, who can play the drums, piano and banjo. The lights went off, the crowd went silent, and the intro started playing. Over the speakers, the voice of David Attenborough could be heard, saying “The Devon countryside is home to a myriad of beautiful and often surprising wildlif…”. When Bowden walked on stage Attenborough’s voice continued with “There it is. Listen closely. Here comes the tallest one”. For Theo, he said “Oh, and here is the run to the litter”, and for Matt “And now the leader of the pack. Watch how the others fear him. Beautiful, sprouty”. The voice-over continued with “I think we’re all in for a wonderful evening”, and ‘Wilder Days’ started as the first song of their set. Two fans in the front row noticeably started to dance along right from the get go.
“Hamburg, how are we feeling?” Matt asked the audience. “This is such an honour for us, thank you so much for being here. This is our first ever headline show in your beautiful city. We’re gonna go on a journey, sad songs, happy songs”. The band then continued with ‘Happy Enough’. In between the songs, Matt kept joking about Bowden’s love life and introduced ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’ as being about his experience with online dating. Progress in the story of Jack’s love life was made with the song ‘Does He Make You Happy?’. Hill joined them on stage to sing this track together.
For the unreleased song ‘Must Confess’, Matt taught the crowd to sing along to the easiest part of the track. Then, the song ‘Dying Stars’ made its German debut. A fan had prepared cut-outs of stars, handed them out, and so the crowd had been turned into a sea of stars during the song. The fan let the band know that it was them who organized all of it, which led to Matt giving them a shoutout: “‘Everyone, give it up for Laura”.
Continuing with the jokes about Bowden’s love life, Matt asked the crowd for relationship advice. Tips included honesty and communication, staying single, and sharing food. The song ‘Garden On The Kitchen Floor’ then followed. For the song a few fans got to come on stage and dance along. After they had left the stage again, Matt said he’s looking for the best and worst dancer. However, he also said “I really like someone who’s just doing the ultimate minimum” and decided on a guy in blue winning a tote bag as a prize for it. For the song ‘Only For You’, the band made their way through the crowd and people’s phone lights made the whole room shine.
Before the last song of the night, on behalf of the whole band, Matt thanked the crowd, Jo Hill, the venue and their own crew. He also said that “This has been such a privilege and the reason we love playing music is because we come into a room for one night only and we just become a community. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, anything about you, we’re all the same in this room and that’s what makes it so special’. He also said that “The world is in a weird place right now and we genuinely need to share a little bit more love. So tomorrow when you’re going out into your day, try and be kind to someone you don’t know or someone you do know, because we gotta share a little bit more kindness in this world’. After sharing this heartfelt message, Matt promised the crowd that Tors will be back in Hamburg.
For the last time that night Matt joked about Bowden’s love life. He said that the following song, ‘Empty Hands’, is about love, “a good kind of love, the love Jack has never found”. He made the people on the floor and the people on the balcony compete against each other, asking them to sing the lyrics “I’ve got love” as loud as possible. The fans on the floor started, then the people on the balcony. Theo decided that the people on the floor had won before ending tonight’s set.
