To never see you show your age
While I was excited to discover new material by two of my favourite bands, the greatest musical moment of the weekend was last night's much anticipated concert by a member of one of the most important bands in rock playing one of the greatest albums ever.
Peter Hook, bassist from Joy Division and New Order, played the entirety of 1979's Unknown Pleasures, in order, plus a few extra songs. There was no opening act, but there was a twenty minute video of various archival footage from New Order's early career including footage from 24 Hour Party People (2002) and Control (2007). After a short break, Hook and his band, The Lights, came on. I was struck by three things during the concert: the importance of Joy Division to subsequent and contemporary music, the reaction of the crowd to the different songs, and how well Unknown Pleasures plays as a concert experience.
It's amazing how powerful the album is as a live experience. Rather than the more sedate pace of the album track, 'Disorder' became a pumping rock anthem to start the show. The additional density of the live sound filled out 'Day of the Lords' admirably too. I had taken a sneak peak at youtube videos of Peter Hook's previous shows and been unimpressed by his vocal talents, so I was a bit nervous at the potential quality of the show, but shitty smartphone recordings don't do it justice. He's no Ian Curtis, but his voice has sufficient depth to carry the songs. After a powerful opening, 'Candidate' is a refreshing and contemplative break before 'Insight' begins to step it up again. Insight's spacey keyboard sounds exploded throughout the room like a second drum set and powered the instrumental interludes of that song.
Then comes the core of the album, my favourite tracks, 'New Dawn Fades', 'She's Lost Control' and 'Shadowplay'. 'New Dawn Fades' is a powerful song anyway, building to a crescendo as it does, but I was surprised that the crowd wasn't more into 'She's Lost Control'. I don't remember exactly which tracks they were more into, but in many cases it was tracks I wouldn't have expected. Not that it matters, they're all good.
On the album, 'Wilderness' is arranged rather sparsely, but it too became quite the anthem when filled out in a live performance. Unsurprisingly, 'Interzone' went off and was just one of the songs which allowed Hook's guitarist to showcase his considerable skills. Finally, for the album portion of the show, and providing a nice break before the remaining selection, came the atmospheric and mellow 'I Remember Nothing'.
The composition of the rest of the show and the order of those tracks is harder to recall exactly, but they played at least 'No Love Lost', 'Digital', 'Leaders of Men' and 'Glass' before the end of the main set.
The first encore comprised 'Transmission' and 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Peter Hook relinquished the vocal duties during 'Transmission' to an excited Perry Farrel, who was great, when he knew the words. Which is to say, during the chorus. Throughout the gig, Hook had diligently flicked through a lyric book on a music stand next to him between each song. I never saw him look at the book during the songs themselves, so it was perhaps a safety net rather than a requirement. But during the verses of 'Transmission', Farrell was clearly reading from the lyrics. I guess he had not planned to make a participatory experience! Hook took back control of the microphone for the other undisputed crowd favourite 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'.
The second encore was also two songs. I can't recall the first, but fittingly, the concert ended on 'Atmosphere' and Ian's last song, 'Ceremony'. They could have played for another hour as far as I was concerned. They didn't play 'Dead Souls', 'Isolation' (despite calls from the crowd), 'Atmosphere', 'Failures' or 'Warsaw'. I don't think they played 'Novelty'.
The concert was an amazing experience. better than The Sisters of Mercy gig at the same venue. Peter Hook may not be able to sing and play at the same time, and he may have just posed with his bass most of the time, but he had nothing on Eldritch in that respect. The sound mix and quality was better too, the volume was higher, and the crowd weren't quite such a bunch of too-cool-for-school twatcocks.
So finally, here's a Q&A from LAWeekly: Q&A with Joy Division's Peter Hook. And a slide show vid to the original live version of Ceremony from which New Order tried to decipher the lyrics:
312
Peter Hook, bassist from Joy Division and New Order, played the entirety of 1979's Unknown Pleasures, in order, plus a few extra songs. There was no opening act, but there was a twenty minute video of various archival footage from New Order's early career including footage from 24 Hour Party People (2002) and Control (2007). After a short break, Hook and his band, The Lights, came on. I was struck by three things during the concert: the importance of Joy Division to subsequent and contemporary music, the reaction of the crowd to the different songs, and how well Unknown Pleasures plays as a concert experience.
It's amazing how powerful the album is as a live experience. Rather than the more sedate pace of the album track, 'Disorder' became a pumping rock anthem to start the show. The additional density of the live sound filled out 'Day of the Lords' admirably too. I had taken a sneak peak at youtube videos of Peter Hook's previous shows and been unimpressed by his vocal talents, so I was a bit nervous at the potential quality of the show, but shitty smartphone recordings don't do it justice. He's no Ian Curtis, but his voice has sufficient depth to carry the songs. After a powerful opening, 'Candidate' is a refreshing and contemplative break before 'Insight' begins to step it up again. Insight's spacey keyboard sounds exploded throughout the room like a second drum set and powered the instrumental interludes of that song.
Then comes the core of the album, my favourite tracks, 'New Dawn Fades', 'She's Lost Control' and 'Shadowplay'. 'New Dawn Fades' is a powerful song anyway, building to a crescendo as it does, but I was surprised that the crowd wasn't more into 'She's Lost Control'. I don't remember exactly which tracks they were more into, but in many cases it was tracks I wouldn't have expected. Not that it matters, they're all good.
On the album, 'Wilderness' is arranged rather sparsely, but it too became quite the anthem when filled out in a live performance. Unsurprisingly, 'Interzone' went off and was just one of the songs which allowed Hook's guitarist to showcase his considerable skills. Finally, for the album portion of the show, and providing a nice break before the remaining selection, came the atmospheric and mellow 'I Remember Nothing'.
The composition of the rest of the show and the order of those tracks is harder to recall exactly, but they played at least 'No Love Lost', 'Digital', 'Leaders of Men' and 'Glass' before the end of the main set.
The first encore comprised 'Transmission' and 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. Peter Hook relinquished the vocal duties during 'Transmission' to an excited Perry Farrel, who was great, when he knew the words. Which is to say, during the chorus. Throughout the gig, Hook had diligently flicked through a lyric book on a music stand next to him between each song. I never saw him look at the book during the songs themselves, so it was perhaps a safety net rather than a requirement. But during the verses of 'Transmission', Farrell was clearly reading from the lyrics. I guess he had not planned to make a participatory experience! Hook took back control of the microphone for the other undisputed crowd favourite 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'.
The second encore was also two songs. I can't recall the first, but fittingly, the concert ended on 'Atmosphere' and Ian's last song, 'Ceremony'. They could have played for another hour as far as I was concerned. They didn't play 'Dead Souls', 'Isolation' (despite calls from the crowd), 'Atmosphere', 'Failures' or 'Warsaw'. I don't think they played 'Novelty'.
The concert was an amazing experience. better than The Sisters of Mercy gig at the same venue. Peter Hook may not be able to sing and play at the same time, and he may have just posed with his bass most of the time, but he had nothing on Eldritch in that respect. The sound mix and quality was better too, the volume was higher, and the crowd weren't quite such a bunch of too-cool-for-school twatcocks.
So finally, here's a Q&A from LAWeekly: Q&A with Joy Division's Peter Hook. And a slide show vid to the original live version of Ceremony from which New Order tried to decipher the lyrics:
Click to view312