I was lucky I bought my tickets back in July, because the show sold out in a week or so, at a time when half of France is on vacation. The venue, an old gilded theater was packed, of course, but it was strange to see a legendary literally within a ten-minute walk of where I live. I went with a friend who had seen New Order four times or so, including back in their 1980s heyday. He warned me that they are usually not that great in concert, often looking like they would rather be somewhere else and using a lot of prerecorded tapes, the highlight of the show being when they change these between songs. Plus, this was going to be without Peter Hook.
Well, it turned out that maybe Hookie and the other three parting ways was what was needed to get the band enthusiastic about playing again. The two new musicians are good, the bassist not attempting to copy Hook's lines but still giving the songs some depth. They actually played almost every note themselves, except for some back-up vocals that are provided by La Roux on the new album. The tracks they played from Music Complete fit in well with the rest of the show, favorites from their entire catalog, confirming that this is their strongest effort since the 1990s. They still don't move around too much (except for the two new guys), but they had a very good visual show to accompany the music, with some of the usual colored abstract projections, but also a number of short films and videos selected because they highlight the music being played. There had obviously been a lot of efforts put into designing that and the lighting as well.
The set was over an hour, ending with a rousing version of "Temptation", with the crowd spontaneously supplying the "ooh-ooh" vocal back-up. Bernard Sumner actually seemed to be enjoying himself for once. The encore was one of the strongest I have ever seen. They started off with the extended version of "Blue Monday", then segued into "Atmosphere", while a visual tribute to Ian Curtis playing in the background. I thought "this is nice, I didn't think they ever played any Joy Division tracks". Then they ended the show with "Love Will tear Us Apart", with the entire crowd singing along, a completely unexpected and magical moment. Catch them if they cross the ocean.
The opening act was one of those groups that only mumbles their name. They played a set very much influenced by JD, early Ultravox, Wire or Magazine. They have a strong visual identity, with ll four members wearing a black smock with their last names written on the left breast (I could only make out a couple of them, since the very energetic drummer was hidden behind his kit, and the female keyboardist, who was a perfect look-alike for a younger Gillian Gilbert, spent the whole set hunched over on her instrument. They also had the word "Bleich" with a number on the back of the smocks. It took a while, but I figured out their name is Hot Vestry, and they only have a couple of EPs out (they seem to be barely out of their teens). They should be worth watching over the coming while.
The crowd was a bit eery, a sea of white people all around my age...
