[ATTENDED: September 4, 2024] Peter Hook & The Light
Back in 2022, Peter Hook & The Light toured Philly. I grabbed tickets but we wound up not going.
This show was described as being all Substance–both the Joy Division and the New Order compilation albums. I was pretty excited to see the show. Last time El Ten Eleven opened and I had REALLY wanted to see them. This time there was no opener, which was great in that it would be a pretty early night but bad because it mean there was no good parking nearby.
But that’s okay. I arrived plenty early and got a decent spot near the stage (between two really tall guys one of whom didn’t smile for the whole show).
And after a show time, Peter & the Light came out on stage. I hadn’t really given any thought to his band, which includes David Potts guitar (and lead vocals on a couple of New Order songs), Paul Kehoe drums (at first I wasn’t sure what he was doing since here were a lot of electronic drums, but when he kicked in it filled up the room) and Martin Rebelski keyboards and synthesizers (who frankly did most of the heavy listing in this show–playing bass lines and synth lines and drum lines). Hook’s son Jack Bates plays bass, and guitar. Indeed, when Hook wasn’t playing those super memorable bass lines, Bates played them.
I knew roughly what they were going to play (they told us, after all), but I didn’t realize that New Order would come first.
I also thought I knew Substance quite well, so I was puzzled how come I didn’t recognize the first couple of songs. It turns out that each show they are playing a couple songs not on the album first (and they vary per show).
I thought I knew Substance really well, but it’s possible I haven’t listened to it in a really long time. It wasn’t until Temptation that I started to fully recognize everything. The early songs sounded great and sounded familiar, but it took me a while to really groove to it (unlike the guy in front of me who was literally dancing (and had a lot of room around him) from the time of the house music. (more…)
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