|
|
Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY, United States of America (2005)
New Order at the Hammerstein Ballroom 5-5-05: The Perfect Transmission!
(First, a disclaimer. I probably have some of the exact quotes wrong, or in the wrong order. But's it's my best recollection of what happened - feel free to correct me!)
What a great f**kin' show!
I left Boston 2 at and made good time all the way down to the Bruckner Expressway... and I thought, what the hell? I'll go down the FDR and look for a spot near MSG... after about an hour getting to midtown I found a spot on 32nd and Broadway! No parking fees or trains!
The wife wanted to get to the venue but I persuaded her to stop by TGIF's and meet you lot. I'm so glad we did. I forget so many of the names, but John, Al, Gaz (cheers for the pint) and Rob among others were so friendly and cool.
We headed over about 7:45 or so - the Hammerstein was pretty empty when I walked over at 7:15 but it was packed. There were about a million scalpers, which I thought was a little odd. Call me cynical, but I somehow don't think a lot of the blokes asking for tickets actually planned to see New Order...
A bunch of us from TGIF's started at the back and inched forward to the fifth row or so. Hammerstein was a nice venue, much larger than I'd anticipated. I'd say there were easily about 2000 people there. I settled in a spot stage right and watched the opening act. They weren't much cop, I'm afraid. At least to my ears. The folks around me seemed to be friends with the band, so they were going on about how this one looked, and how that one played so much better... Thanks, guys, but it's a FINE TIME for New Order!
As they were setting up the stage it struck me - the most legendary and influential band of our time (in my opinion) were about to be on stage. Now follow my logic here. With JD, the boys gave the punk movement an industrial, iconic image and sound. When I first heard Hannett's production I thought, "I have never heard anything like this before..." Listen to the start of "Autosuggestion." Have you ever heard a track open like that? The match (or whatever it is) being struck, the ambient noise... Amazing. Then they emerged from the ashes with NO, created a completely different sound, even experimented with NYC urban music (Confusion) and created one of those songs everyone knows (Blue Monday). They invented Madchester with Technique. Even when they were on hiatus we've got connections with the band and The Smiths (Electronic, Freebass), Chemical Bros., 808 State... I was about to witness the three lads from up North who changed popular music.
Then some weird stuff started to happen. These canisters of dry ice started going off. I mean, about five feet from me. The girls up close were completely enveloped in it. It was fine for me, as I'm a little taller than most folks around me, but still weird. They kept discharging, I guess because it never remained particularly smoky. From my side of the stage, you could see a little window in a staircase - and about 8:55 I saw a familiar figure, Steve Morris! Followed by some other people, Barney, Hooky, and Phil. Then the lights started to flash, the floor rumbled and...
F**KIN' NEW ORDER WAS ON THE STAGE!!!
Phil comes to my side with the red Les Paul. Barney has the Gibson SG with the Confederate flag on the scratchplate (seriously, Barn, what's up with that?), Steve goes to his digital set (replete with Roland digital cymbals!) and The Viking, Hooky, arrives stage left with the lowest-slung bass in rock 'n roll history. He's got a black Eccleshall hollowbody that just looks like it may have been an axe in a former life.
Barney says the ceremonial hello to the crowd, which explodes when the band takes the stage. He looks back at Steve, whips out a recorder thingy, and says, "This is Love Vigilantes!" And they're off. Phil is expertly playing in front of us, handling the chords as Barney sings "I want to see/My family..." My whole section is legit - boys, girls, younger, older, all are singing in unison and pogoing like mad. At this point I take out my earplugs. I agree the sound wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good and it didn't kill my ears like the Graham Coxon show I saw last month did. Barney ends by saying, "That song's about Vietnam." Who knew?
Barney next says, "This is a song of our last record, Crystal," and again the crowd goes mad. It's here where I realize that the song is heavily sequenced - the "whoos" after "We're like crystal/we break easy" are sequenced. Nevertheless, it sounds top, and Hooky ventures over to our end of the stage, behind all of the wires, and gives us the full Hooky treatment, playing his bass at angle length. We, of course, go nuts!
I think here Barney engages in a little banter. He says, "Do you want us to play or do you want us to f*** off?" Of course, the crowd yells, "PLAY!" Barney smiles and says, "Well, if you want us to play, we'll f*** off. If you want us to f*** off we'll play." It was a funny exchange between the band and the audience.
Next is Regret - again, sounds great. After, Barney tells us a story about how he went surfing in California, and a mate of his was attacked by a shark. So he saved his friend, who was unharmed by the shark, but it bit him instead. "'Cause that's the kind of person I am," he sasses. Hey Now What You Doing comes next, sounding in the beginning like Hole's Malibu. But it's fresh sounding, and we're subjected to some of the twee-est lyrics in the NO catalog (doing/ruin and future/computer replete with the typing hand gestures). But it's good, and conveys the despair of the character who's about to fall off the edge. (Is it the same bloke Barney sings about in Like No Other? It's not the friend from Perfect Kiss, as he "took his final breath" in that one.) Krafty is next, and the crowd perks up and sings along - these guys know their way around a (no pun intended) hooky chorus.
Now Hooky comes on the mic (agreed, his mic is better sounding than Barney's) and says, "It's time for a good old fashioned singalong, like we do up North." Or something like that. The familiar duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-DUH-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh comes on and we know it's TRANSMISSION! This rocks like a bastard, especially when Barney yells, "Dance, dance, dance to the radio!" And we do.
Then it's True Faith. I have to admit I was disappointed with this one: TF is either a song a love to hear or I skip it, depending on the mood. (And which came first, Peter Schilling's song or TF?) The explosive drumming from Steve is missing - it's a simpler, less impressive drum pattern. And Barney sings the line "When I was a very small boy/Very small boys talked to me/Now that we've grown up together/They're afraid of what they see" instead of the "now they're taking drugs with me" bit like he does in the 511 DVD. A newer, teetotal Barney? TF ends... it's okay, but not as incredible as it might have been.
Run Wild is next, and Barney comments after that "that's not a song you can dance to, but we need some of those to bring it down." (Or something like that.) He mentions that it's a sensitive lyric. I wasn't a big fan of it on Get Ready, but it's okay here. Again, not earth-shattering but nice (Ear plugs went in here).
Next, Barney tells us he has a surprise - NYC's own Ana Matronic, for Jetstream. For me, it's a "Let's Go" - this song does nothing for me! I'm shocked to hear Barney say it's the next single. Why? Why not Who's Joe? Ana does a good job I guess, but I'm not too impressed with the Scissor Sisters so I'm ready for what's next." Barney thanks here at the end and says, "She's fuckin' great!"
WFTSC is next, again, it's a nice tune but I'm ready for some of the other tracks off the album, or some older stuff (I only bought the CD a week ago so I'm not totally familiar with it). Clearly, Barney senses my impatience, as he summons Bizarre Love Triangle - again another song everyone knows. Here the crowd sings along, and Barney treats us to a show of his... dancing. How to describe it? It definitely has a monkey-like vibe to it. The gurning he does when he's really into it makes this even more memorable. But it suits him, he doesn't look *too* daft doing it, and it's fun. The BLT version is a carbon copy of the recorded version and we see our kid Phil doing the keys work up front stage right along with Steve in the back. It's a crowd pleaser for sure.
Next, I think Barney switches the SG for a Rickenbacker and says, "It's been 25 years since our lead singer died, so we'd like to do this song for him." It's LOVE WILL TEAR US APART! This is when we, as a crowd, get emotional. For some, the song reminds them of their own adolescence. For others, it's a disturbing recount of a crumbling relationship. And for some of us, it's almost IC's suicide note. It's a great song but hard to hear. The lads do a nice job of it, but the old fans for sure think about how much we miss Ian. I'm sure they do too.
Temptation is next, and thanks to the billions of compilations it appears on (along with the prominent role of the song in Trainspotting), everyone knows this as well. It's a great way to end the show. At the end, Barney says, "Thanks for coming out, we hope we can come back again a lot sooner." Cheekily, he adds, "If you clap for five minutes we might come back."
So we do, and they come back. Barney mentions that they'll do two JD songs. First up is She's Lost Control, which is played live like the version on Substance 1977-1980. Again, it's a poignant moment for band and audience, but it sounds great. Next it's Atmosphere. Phil is doing the keyboards and it sounds spot on for a Barney take on Ian's lyrics. We know the end is near so...
There's a lot of commotion stage right with the technology near Phil's Roland keyboard. A rack similar to the one you can see Gillian messing with in the TPK video is there, and Hooky shouts, "Hey Phil, is the technology ready?" Barney gives up his guitar and grabs a mic. You know what's coming next.
It's Blue Monday.
We're all teens again. Steve is back on the keys in the back and occasionally Barney twiddles a knob on the computer. It becomes obvious to me why Hooky is known as "The Viking" - he has the massive six-string bass this time, and a drum pad set up. He pounds the pads in a majestic, primeval way - like Thor forging steel - and it looks like he is fashioning a weapon rather than playing a song. Yes, boys and girls, Peter Hook is the coolest mutha in rock 'n roll. Quite possibly topping The Clash's Paul Simonon. Like Paul, he took the most awkward, dull instrument in the band - most frequently played by the unhippest, swottiest musician - the bass (hey it's cool, I am a bassist as well) - and made it cool for a generation of us to look cooler than the guitarists! Thanks Hooky!!!
The band retire one-by-one, except for one Peter Hook, who remains on stage slowly playing the Blue Monday bass riff. He hands it over to the roadie, but not before bashing it a couple of times. He walks off, and it's over.
Music for pleasure, indeed!
We headed out of the Hammerstein. I was so freakin' high that I walked past t-shirts without picking one up (oops!). I saw Al and Gary a little behind us as we walked out - hope it was ace for you as well. You were right - it was a life changing experience!
I didn't mention this earlier, but one of the best parts of the show was watching the folks backstage (Scissor Sisters/entourage?). They were dancing on the risers, all backstage - no one stood or sat quietly. They were all dancing their arses off! Really fun to see that.
So I got home at 3 am, after driving back. I was so buzzed (and in need of preparing for my 8:30 class which I was leading!) that I only got 4 hours of kip last night, but before I crash on the sofa, just want to say that this show is up there for me with Blur in '97 as far as energy goes. Crowd was great! Another amazing thing to me is the fact that the lads all have all of their hair! No one appears to be thinning. Steve looks timeless, while Hooky looks like that cool dad of your mate's that rides a motorcycle. He wears the beer belly quite well. Barney looks like... well, Barney, only with a little more poundage and wrinkles. The lads are remarkably well preserved. Phil seems to have this very mellow air about him, the lads don't give him grief and seem to genuinely like him. If Gillian comes back (let's hope so) I could imagine them keeping him as well.
That's my report. You are in for a treat if you are a NO concert virgin like me!!!
Source: NewOrderOnline.com (Raz Jazza) |
|