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Archive for the ‘New Order’ Category

Boris (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, October 19, 2024)

Posted in Joy Division, New Order, Peter Hook & The Light, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on October 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 19, 2024] Boris 

I saw Boris last year.  It was great, of course.  And I ended my post about that show with

I wonder if we’ll get a drone show from them next time?

And did we ever!  This was a tour of their second album, Amplifier Worship.  65 minutes of loud heavy drone music.

When I arrived., the place was pretty crowded, but that’s because everyone was online to buy merch. The venue was almost empty because there were 150 people waiting to buy the kick ass poster.  I figured I’d wat until after the show to get the kick ass poster, but after waiting for ten minutes and the line not moving at all, I gave up and went home.

They came out.  Muchio was on drums.  This was the first time I’d seen him play with Boris (and I didn’t know he was on this tour).  This explained why there was a smaller drumset facing the larger drumset.  Then Takeshi came out with his double neck guitar and Wata walked out to her station.

Muchio smashed the gong, the music began to swell, Atsuo came on stage and commanded everyone’s attention.  He’s usually behind the kit so I’ve never actually seen him out from before.  He stood at the front of the stage, arms outstretched and half of the crowd raised their arms in (amplifier) worship.  I loved how long he stood there absorbing the adoration as the other three played a wall of noise.

“Huge” opened with heavy, loud chords from Wata and Takeshi.  Atsuo stood and absorbed everything.  Eventually he and Takeshi screamed the vocals.  “Huge” is 9 minutes on record.  I don’t know how long it was live. (more…)

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Peter Hook & The Light (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 4, 2024)

Posted in Joy Division, New Order, Peter Hook & The Light, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on September 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[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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Pet Shop Boys / New Order / Paul Oakenfield: The Unity Tour (Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, September 28, 2022) [rescheduled again] [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Madison Square Garden, New Order, New York City, Paul Oakenfield, Pet Shop Boys on September 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 28, 2022] Pet Shop Boys / New Order / Paul Oakenfield: The Unity Tour [rescheduled from September 12, 2020 and September 22, 2021]

This concert was postponed twice.  And now it was finally happening.

I had seen Pet Shop Boys a few years ago and definitely wanted to see them again.  I had never seen New Order but new it would be a fun show.  I had no real opinion of Paul Oakenfield.

And yet… (more…)

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Peter Hook & the Light / El Ten Eleven (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 26, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in El Ten Eleven, Joy Division, New Order, Peter Hook & The Light, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on August 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 26, 2022] Peter Hook & the Light / El Ten Eleven

This was a show I hated to miss.  Since I had blown off Pet Shop Boys & New Order earlier in the year, I figured at least I’d get to see Peter Hook do the songs (although this tour was largely Joy Division).

Plus I really wanted to see El Ten Eleven, a duo who plays amazingly complex songs using all kinds of pedals and other gadgets.  In videos they are impressive to watch.  I have really wanted to see them live.

This double bill was amazing.  And I had gotten tickets for my wife and I as soon as they went on sale.

Then The Decemberists announced a show on the day before this.  And Ben Folds rescheduled his show to the date after this.  And my wife would rather see those two (both seated, thank you very much).  And she wouldn’t do three nights out in a row.  She probably wouldn’t have liked El Ten Eleven anyhow.

I’m not sure if Peter Hook will tour again, but I really want to see El Ten Eleven.

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Pet Shop Boys / New Order: The Unity Tour (Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, September 22, 2021) [rescheduled]

Posted in Coronavirus, Madison Square Garden, New Order, New York City, Pet Shop Boys, Postponed, Quarantine on September 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: September 22, 2021] Pet Shop Boys / New Order: The Unity Tour [rescheduled from September 12, 2020 moved to September 28, 2022]

As a touring band of a certain age (and financial situation), it didn’t surprise me that this tour was postponed one more year–what do they need to put themselves at risk for?  I bought these tickets on Feb 26, 2020!

However, I was pleased that this time the show isn’t the day after the My Chemical Romance show,

indexI saw the Pet Shop Boys in Morristown a few years ago.  The show was great.  The guys sounded amazing and I had a really good time–except for the crowd around me.  They were all loud and talking and tall and pushing.  I wished I’d gotten better seats as well.  So I told myself if they toured again I would see them if conditions were good.

Well, how about if they toured with New Order?  I’ve been a fan of New Order forever but I’ve never seen them live.  I’m not even sure I ever really wanted to see them live.  But putting them together with New Order was  perfect.  I didn’t realize that peter Hook had left the band.  I did see that he was doing solo shows, but I didn’t realize he had no main band anymore.  I also didn’t realized they’d put out any new music since Get Ready.  Well, I hope they were just going to play the hits.

I didn’t really want to go to Madison Square Garden, but I’ve had good luck there lately so I picked it over any other large venue.

On June 11, I got the news that Pet Shop Boys & New Order – The Unity Tour was to be postponed until next year.  I had pretty good seats, so I’m glad I get to keep them.  I’ve waited a while to see them again, what’s one more year?

 

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Pet Shop Boys / New Order: The Unity Tour (Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, September 12, 2020) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, Madison Square Garden, New Order, New York City, Pet Shop Boys, Postponed, Quarantine on September 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: September 12, 2020] Pet Shop Boys / New Order: The Unity Tour [moved September 22, 2021]

indexI saw the Pet Shop Boys in Morristown a few years ago.  The show was great.  The guys sounded amazing and I had a really good time–except for the crowd around me.  They were all loud and talking and tall and pushing.  I wished I’d gotten better seats as well.  So I told myself if they toured again I would see them if conditions were good.

Well, how about if they toured with New Order?  I’ve been a fan of New Order forever but I’ve never seen them live.  I’m not even sure I ever really wanted to see them live.  But putting them together with New Order was  perfect.  I didn’t realize that peter Hook had left the band.  I did see that he was doing solo shows, but I didn’t realize he had no main band anymore.  I also didn’t realized they’d put out any new music since Get Ready.  Well, I hope they were just going to play the hits.

I didn’t really want to go to Madison Square Garden, but I’ve had good luck there lately so I picked it over any other large venue.

On June 11, I got the news that Pet Shop Boys & New Order – The Unity Tour was to be postponed until next year.  I had pretty good seats, so I’m glad I get to keep them.  I’ve waited a while to see them again, what’s one more year?

 

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Douglas Coupland–Shopping in Jail: Ideas, Essays, and Stories for the Increasingly Real 21st Century (2014)

Posted in Alternate Reality, Art, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, China, Cigarettes, Douglas Coupland, Ed Ruscha, Hari Kunzru, Joy Division, Kathleen Edwards, Live at Massey Hall, Looking for Mr Goodbar, Marshall McLuhan, Matt Mays, New Order, Pornography, Remote Control, Short Books, Talking Heads, Technology, The Future on November 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

shoppingSOUNDTRACK: MATT MAYS-Live at Massey Hall (May 4, 2018).

I had never heard of Matt Mays.  He was once a part of the Canadian country band The Guthries (who I also don’t know).  Perhaps the most surprising (and disappointing) thing to me about this show is when I saw an ad for this concert and saw that Kathleen Edwards was opening for him (!).  And that so far they haven’t released the Kathleen Edwards show.

Before the show he says he wants all feelings present–happy, sad–he praises the expression “all the feels” because that’s what he wants to happen tonight.  He wants the night to be “like a Nova Scotia kitchen party.”  You laugh you cry you dance and you fight all in one kitchen.

He starts with “Indio.”  Like most of these songs, it is a rocking guitar song with a definite country-rock feel.  It’s also interesting that a Nova Scotia guy is singing about “old fashioned California sin.”  There’s a ton of lead guitar work from Adam Baldwin.  Mays also plays guitar and there’s an acoustic guitar as well from Aaron Goldstein  The song breaks midway through to a piano melody from Leith Fleming-Smith.  Mays asks “You feel like singing Toronto? It’s real easy.”  And it is: “Run run run you are free now.  run run run you are free.”

For “Station Out of Range,” he invites his dear friend Kate Dyke from St Johns, Newfoundland.  She sings backing vocals.  It opens with some big crushing drums from Loel Campbell.  It has a slower tempo, but it grows really big with some really massive drum fills.

“Building a Boat” opens with a repeating keyboard pattern before a real rocking riff kicks in.  Ryan Stanley also plays guitars.  The song rocks on with a lot of little guitar solos.  Mays takes one and then Baldwin follows.  They jam this pretty long.

“Take It on Faith” starts with a simple piano before the guitars come roaring in with two searing solos.  The melody is really catchy, too.

“Terminal Romance” is a slower number.  Mays puts his guitar down and its mostly piano and bass
(Serge Samson).  Eventually a guitar with a slide is added.  It builds as more guitars come in.  They jam this song for about 8 minutes.

He ends the show with “Cocaine Cowgirl,” an oldie that still means a lot to him.   He says he’s been playing Toronto since he was 19 years-old in font of tow people.  He’s thrilled to be at Massey Hall.  His band is his best buds from Nova Scotia.   It’s an absolutely wailing set ender with Mays throwing in some wicked solos.  The song seems like its over but Mays plays some really fast guitar chords and aftee a few bars everyone joins in and rips the place part with intensity.  It runs to nearly ten minutes and it’s a  really satisfying ending.

[READ: August 3, 2019] “Shopping in Jail”

When an author releases a lot of books and essays in various formats, it’s pretty inevitable that you’ll wind up re-reading one or two.  Especially if some of those essays are reprinted in other books.

So it turns out that I read this small book five years ago (it’s understandable that I didn’t remember that after five years).  Here’s what I said about it five years ago:

Just when I thought I had caught up with everything that Douglas Coupland had published, I came across this book, a collection of his recent essays.  I enjoy the very unartistic cover that Sternberg Press has put on this.  It looks extremely slapdash–look at the size of the print and that the contents are on the inside front cover.  But the essays contained within are pure Coupland and are really enjoyable.

I have read a number of his older essays in recent years.  And here’s the thing: reading old Coupland essays just makes you think, ho hum, he knew some things.  But you don’t really think that he was on the forefront of whatever he was thinking.  So to read these essays almost concurrently is really fascinating.

His thoughts are science fiction, but just on the cusp of being very possible, even probable.  He also looks at things in ways that the average person does not–he notices that on 9/11 people didn’t have picture phones–imagine how more highly documented it would have been.  These essays are largely about technology, but they’re also about the maturation and development of people and how they relate to things.  Coupland can often seem very ponderous, and yet with these essays he seems prescient without actually trying to predict anything.  I enjoyed this collection very much.

I’m going to include what I said last time (in italics), but I felt the need to add some five-years later thoughts on each essay. (more…)

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Nick Hornby–“We Are the World” (New Yorker, July 15, 2002)

Posted in Ant and Dec, Essays, Fat Les, Joy Division, New Order, New Yorker, Nick Hornby, Soccer, World Cup on September 28, 2019| Leave a Comment »

2002SOUNDTRACK: ANT & DEC-“We’re on the Ball” (2002).

indexEvidently, for nearly every football tournament since 1970, the English team has had a theme song.

Occasionally one of those songs will reach non-footbnall fans.  In 1990 New Order did “World in Motion” which New Order fans will know whether they like football or not.  One of the band members described the single as “the last straw for Joy Division fans.”

Who the heck are Ant &Dec?  They are TV presenters (of what I’m not sure) with really questionable haircuts.  I don’t know if they wrote this song or just sing it. I’m not even sure what the verses are on about as they seem to be irrelevant–filler until you get to the chorus.  A vibrant horn melody introduces the easily chantable:

We’re on the ball
We’re on the ball
We’re on the ball
We’re on the ball
We’re on the ball
We’re on the ball
We’re on the ball
We’re on the ball

The final verse is one that any football fan can appreciate:

Japan, Korea, here come England
It’s Neville to Cambell
Cambell to Rio
Rio to Scholesy
Scholesy Gerrard
Gerrard to Beckham
Beckham to Heskey
Heskey to Owen
To Nodd
5-1

Honestly I prefer Fat Les’ “Vindaloo,” which has a huge na na na part and this wonderful boast: “We’re gonna score one more than you.”

[READ: September 25, 2019] “We are the World”

Nick Hornby wrote his final music article for the New Yorker in 2001.  He then wrote this article about soccer and then stopped contributing to the magazine at all (until mid 2020, it turns out).

This article is all about the World Cup.  I’m sure there are many writers who can write wonderful things about the World Cup, but I feel like Hornby’s unbridled love for the game, combined with his quick wit and mild snark, make his World Cup writing excellent.

It’s always weird to read about things that happened nearly twenty years ago as if they were current. It’s even weirder to read about things that happened nearly twenty years ago that you didn’t care about, or possibly even know happened, from someone who cares very deeply about it.  “It is mostly pointless to try to convince an American readership of the joys of football (yes football) but it would be hard for anyone not to take pleasure in the rhythm of life in a football-mad country during the world cup.”

The world cup was on at 7:30 AM in England most days . England’s tabloids had to battle the World Cup for eyeballs and gave up: “On the morning of England’s game with Brazil the cover of the Daily Mirror showed only the flag of St George–England’s official flag–and the caption, ‘This page is cancelled. Nothing else matters.'” (more…)

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Garth Greenwell–“Harbor” (New Yorker, September 16, 2019)

Posted in Bulgaria, Drinking, Garth Greenwell, LGBTQ, New Order, New Yorker, Short Story, The Cure on September 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

garhSOUNDTRACK: CAYETANA-New Kind of Normal (2017).

cayetanOne of the worst feelings is when you find out about a band right after they’ve broken up.

I feel like I’ve been aware of Cayetana forever, but they only formed in 2011. I wonder if there’s another band I’m confusing them with.

Well, Cayetana played their last concert at Union Transfer this past August 3.  It’s nice that they played their final show in front of  a home crowd.  I would have gone had I known I liked them.  Which I now do.

Cayetana were Allegra Anka: bass guitar / back-up vocals; Augusta Koch: guitar / lead vocals; Kelly Olsen: drums / back-up vocals.  For a band with an exotic-sounding name, their music is pretty straightforward.  But boy is it good.

Their songs are pretty standard alt-rock with a 90’s feel, but there’s really interesting instrumentation under Koch’s satisfying vocals.

 One of the most immediately pleasing things is the sound of the bass guitar, and that the bass doesn’t simply follow the guitars–there are basslines galore on this record.  I love the counterpoint of the fast and complex New Order-like bass line and the ringing guitar notes on the opener “Am I Dead Yet?”

There’s great guitars (with feedback) and thumping drums on the really catchy “Mesa.”  There’s great drums on “Too Old For This” as well.

The harmonies are terrific like on “Easy to Love” where you can clearly hear all three of them.

Most of the songs are pretty catchy, but there are few with a twinge of discord.  “Bus Ticket” has some harsh notes and a thumping ending.   And “Side Sleepers” slows things down and feels more bass heavy, which is no bad thing when the basslines are as cool as this one.

“Certain for Miles” starts quietly with just bass and drums but adds a nice ringing guitar about midway through.  The wonderfully titled “Phonics Failed Me” is a midtempo rocker with a great instrumental break.

“Follow” has more of that great opening bass work like The Cure or New Order and “Dust” has an even better bass introduction–slow and moody with lots of bass chords.

“World” ends the disc with a slow moody tone with echoing guitars and lots of great bass lines and chords.  It’s quiet and ends with a car starting up and driving away.

A fitting ending to the bands final album.

[READ: August 22, 2017] “Harbor”

I read a story by Greenwell a couple of years ago.  It was written in 2017.  They are both set in Bulgaria. They both have a character named N.

I found this story confusing, probably because of the cultural information that I couldn’t quite parse.

Underneath all of the action, the narrator is coining for R. who just broke up with him.  Every couple of months he flew to Lisbon to be with R., but R. said he needed to figure things out.  The narrator wanted a new life too.  He was tired of teaching.  But he wanted the new life to come with R. in it.

As with the other story, the Bulgarians and Americans writers are hanging out.  The narrator explains there is no such thing as a Bulgarian professional writer–they all had other careers.  The Americans were younger and boring by comparison.They play spin the bottle.  But before they can finish, the waitress comes over and tells them to stop.  She removes the bottle.

(more…)

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Haruki Murakami–“Cream” (New Yorker, January 28, 2019)

Posted in Caves, Death, Field Recordings, Haruki Murakami, Huh?, Humiliation, Joy Division, New Order, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Philip Guston, Short Story, Translation on January 28, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NEW ORDER-“Ceremony” (live) (1981).

Recently, Peter Hook was in Philly to play some New Order music with his band The Light.  I wonder how much different that show sounded from this one.

New Order formed out of the ashes of Joy Division in 1980.

Their first single, “Ceremony,” was actually written with Joy Division prior to Curtis’ suicide. It popped up as a single in advance of New Order’s 1981 debut album, Movement, which is about to receive the deluxe-reissue treatment; to commemorate the occasion, the band is circulating a little-seen performance of “Ceremony,” recorded live at Manchester’s CoManCHE Student Union.

Imagine having been at that show in 1981?

The music sounds amazing here–the guitar sound is perfect, the bass and drums are spot on.  But the vocals are terrible.  Practically inaudible.  I realize that he’s mostly speak/singing at this time, but you really can’t really hear him at all on the first verse.  It’s a little better on the second verse, but it’s the instrumental break that’s the real high point.

You can read about the re-release here.

[READ: January 23, 2019] “Cream”

The first line of this story sounds like it could describe most of Murakami’s stories:

So I’m telling a friend of mine about a strange incident that took place back when I was eighteen.  I don’t recall exactly why I brought it up.  It just happened to come up as we were talking.

Murakami is all about the strange incident.

He gives some details about himself at the time–finished high school, not yet in college–when he received an invitation to a piano recital.  The invitation came from a girl who was a year behind him in school but who went to the same piano teacher. They once played a piece together but she was clearly much better.  He’d stopped playing and obviously she had gone on to give a recital .

The recital hall was at the top of a mountain in Kobe.  He took a train and then a bus and then had a short walk to get to the venue.  It was a weird, inconvenient place for a concert venue.  He brought flowers to show his appreciation. (more…)

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