ADRIAN VANDENBERG

With Bad Marriage

Infinity Music Hall & Bistro
Hartford, Connecticut
February 27, 2025

Photos & Review by Frank Piercy

HARTFORD, Conn. – Hartford has a couple of places to go and see concerts, from the large outdoor venues like the Xfinity Theatre, The XL Center (Formerly known as the Hartford Civic Center) to smaller venues like the Webster Theater and one of my favorites… The Infinity Music Hall and Bistro. A fantastic staff and reasonably priced drinks.

I am back at Infinity to cover one of the guitar greats to come out of the 80s, Adrian Vandenberg who is known for his work with Whitesnake and also his own project Vandenberg. He brought along with his guitar virtuosity opening band Bad Marriage.

Bad Marriage is more or less a local band, hailing from the Boston, bringing bad ass rock n roll down the turnpike to Hartford. Bad Marriage consists of singer Jonny Paquin, lead guitarist Mike Fitz, along with Tommy Skeoch who you might know from Tesla, on lead/rhythm guitar, rhythm guitarist Ian Haggerty, bassist Todd Boisvert, and Michael Delaney on drums.

This is the first time I have seen them live, and I wasn’t disappointed. Great stage presence and full of energy, they definitely had the crowd warmed up by the end of their set. They played 11 songs in what was probably a 40 minute set with not much fluff between tunes, they started out with “Gateway Drug,” “Bad Blood,” and “Who’s Ready To Rock,” “Second Hand Smoke,” “Rockin Rollin Mofo” and “Head Trip” before the they played what I was not expecting at all . This really surprised me, but they did a cover of Saxon’s song “Denim and Leather” I don’t think I have heard any band cover that song, I was pleased. After that they played a couple more of their songs, “Match Made in Hell”, “Old School Stereo” and “Ready Aim Fire” before ending their set with a song made popular by Tesla and an acknowledgement of Tommy Skeochs past, “Lil Suzi” A lil bit of trivia for all of you out there, “Lil Suzi’s on the Up” was originally written and released by a British band called PhD in 1981 and was the fifth video played on MTV’s August 1st 1981 debut.

The way they played and sang the song was fantastic! I was impressed and will go see these guys if they come back around Connecticut. It was now time for the main event.

BAD MARRIAGE photo gallery

Living on the East Coast during this time of year, specifically in the weeks leading up to the Monsters of Rock Cruise, brings many acts from Europe that we wouldn’t normally see on a full blown tour of the United States, between the rising costs to tour and the rising costs for the musicians to get Visas to be able to play here, they just normally don’t do it. Correct me if I am wrong, but when they do something like Monster of Rock Cruise or festivals like M3 in Maryland to help offset those costs and to make the most of their time here, the bands will run short tours through the east coast or a couple of dates here then a couple of dates on the west coast.

Hartford’s Infinity Music Hall was good enough to bring him to Connecticut along with his band, consisting of vocalist Mats Leven, Joey Marin de Boer on drums, Sem Christoffel on bass and on keyboards Len Van de Laak.

The night “Hit the Ground Running” off Vandenberg’s latest album and then went into a couple of Whitesnake songs, “Slide It In” and “Fool for Your Loving,” “Your Love Is In Vain” was the next Vandenberg song before even more Whitesnake songs such as, “Bad Boys”, and some songs that the crowd sang along to “Love Aint No Stranger,” “Is This Love” and “Give Me All Your Love” and then Joey Marin de Boer was given a chance to shine and provided us with a kick ass drum solo which led into another Whitesnake song, “Judgement Day” then what I was, as well as all the other people there, Adrian’s guitar solo. Unfortunately, ok not unfortunately as Adrian pointed out to everyone when there is a technical difficulty, they stop fix then start over, so we got a bit more of his “Adagio for Strato” then anyone else has so far. Mats Leven’s voice sounds good singing the Whitesnake songs, I can see why he has toured with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, a lot like David Coverdale’s voice, but so distinct. “Crying in the Rain” was next followed by another crowd sing along to end the set, “Here I Go Again.”

They came back out to the stage to low lights and Adrian and Mats took a seat on the drum riser, bring it down a bit as they went into Whitesnakes “Sailing Ships” I have seen Whitesnake a couple of times, and I don’t remember hearing that song done, it was nice. “Burning Heart” brought Vanderberg back into the mix before dedicating the next and final song of the night to John Sykes “Still of the Night.”

I went into tonight expecting to hear mostly Whitesnake songs, especially off the 1987 “Whitesnake” album and I was not wrong, but I was not expecting a band so full of talent. Not only did we get the guitar great we were expecting in Adrian, but a front man in Mats that brought his A game. Not to be outdone, Sem on bass was a whirling dervish on stage right full of energy. Holy Cow was Joey something else on the drums, Len on the keyboards was great on the keys and technical issues. Unfortunately being on the keyboard doesn’t give a chance for flamboyance, and being stuck in the back corner of stage right in red lights doesn’t also help in getting good images but his contribution was definitely felt.

Overall, it was a great show with a really rambunctious crowd that actually caught the attention of Adrian and Mats more then once. They are gearing up for MORC so catch them while you can!