Take The Shock Away!
It often feels like a number of artists these days are playing up the waves of nostalgia for their music. So many bands that have been laying dormant have been coming out of the woodwork with reunion tours, new albums, and renewed activity, enough so that my lovely editor had made mention in passing to me that most of the bands at festivals were made up of 50 year olds. Personally, I don’t really care. I like music, and if a band I like gets back together or does something new, I’m all for it. So when I first heard that Peter Hook had formed his own band in 2008 and started playing Joy Division songs I was pretty much all for it. I love Joy Division. I lamented that Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu’s live Joy Division cover shows were so far out of reach and further lamented missing out on Hook’s shows, but it’s looking like 2018 is just starting to turn into MY year for concerts!
Before I begin to gush and lose all my objectivity, I need to talk about El Ten Eleven, the opener. Not being aware of them, or that there even was an opener beforehand, I got to go in without expectation and just enjoy a short but sweet set, full of complex guitar looping melodies that never felt overly repetitive. They were hand picked by Hook and played a set of new material in anticipation of an upcoming record release sometime this August.
Originally listed as an exclusive show, featuring performances of Joy Division’s two official albums, fans were immediately surprised with a set of selections from New Order’s single collection Substance: New Order, starting with “Ceremony” — originally penned as Joy Division, but tragically never professionally recorded before Ian Curtis’ suicide — and followed by some of the best cuts from that collection. While the lighting left a lot to be desired for color photography, the blending of shadows and hues gave the performance a starkness that contradicted the amazing amount of energy put forth by Hooky and band.
Hook, who wasn’t well known for singing in the past, has an incredibly rich voice, and he sounds so much closer to Curtis than almost anyone I’ve ever heard in imitation, but thankfully he doesn’t try to BE Curtis. That is to say that he lends his particular style to singing, and he is unafraid to take songs at a faster tempo than how they were originally recorded. He brought out the pure rock ‘n’ roll essence that previously one could only hear in live bootlegs and kept up the energy for three sets — plus encore — at about 3 hours and 10 minutes of music. If the sheer scope of the show weren’t already pretty amazing, he also pulled in a few guest musicians, namely Jane’s Addiction founding member Eric Avery, who joined in on “Twenty Four Hours,” and Screaming Trees founder and solo artist Mark Lanegan, who sang lead vocals on “Atmosphere” and “Dead Souls.”
Special guests aside, mention has to be made of Hooky’s incredible backing band which includes his son Jack on second bass, Paul Kehoe rivaling Stephen Morrison in speed and precision on drums, Martin Rebelski on keys, and longtime friend and collaborator David Potts, who gave Bernard Sumner a run for his money on guitar. If they messed up anywhere, I sure as hell didn’t catch it, and they brought an incredible amount of life to the songs, some of which are now about 30 years old. All in all, Peter Hook and the Light put on one of the best damn shows any fan could ask for, and they do so with absolute respect and humility. If they’re playing in a town near you, buy that damn ticket.
Peter Hook and the Light Setlist (courtesy setlist.fm):
New Order Set
Ceremony
Dreams Never End
Leave Me Alone
Subculture
True Faith
Temptation
The Perfect Kiss
Joy Division Set 1: Closer
No Love Lost
Atrocity Exhibition
Isolation
Passover
Colony
A Means to an End
Heart and Soul
Twenty Four Hours
The Eternal
Decades
Joy Division Set 2: Unknown Pleasures
Digital
Disorder
Day of the Lords
Candidate
Insight
New Dawn Fades
She’s Lost Control
Shadowplay
Wilderness
Interzone
I Remember Nothing
Encore
Atmosphere
Dead Souls
Transmission
Love Will Tear Us Apart
