Peter Hook and the Light in Silver Spring

The Fillmore was about 3/4 full of very vocal JD fans (the opener polled the crowd and JD was a winner over NO) to hear "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer" in their entirety. I am not the biggest JD fan but to get a chance to hear those albums entirely by Peter Hook was something I didn't want to pass up. Peter Hook and the Light opened with a short set of New Order songs (and one Monaco song). I'm also not a big New Order fan but I did recognize "Regret", "True Faith" and of course "Blue Monday". I must admit seeing Hook get that signature bass sound was pretty thrilling but his singing wasn't the greatest for these songs so I was glad that the majority of the show was not New Order.

The band took a five minute break and came back for "Unknown Pleasures" which sounded great. Hook's voice is better suited to this and does sound close at times to Ian Curtis. "Day of the Lords", "She's Lost Control" and "I Remember Nothing" were the highlights. Another five minute break and then "Closer". This album is more challenging to listen to and the crowd was noticeably less enthusiastic for it. But, wait, I thought the majority were Joy Division fans? Maybe they were more New Order fans than they cared to admit. There was a very vocal group of Joy Division fans near me though, that were jumping up and down and high fiving each other after each song. I don't know but for some reason I don't think Joy Division's sound would make me so enthusiastic. Highlights for this set was "Isolation" and "A Means to an End".

Another five minute break before they came back for the encore. And what an encore: "Ceremony" (besides Monday and Love, the biggest crowd response) then "Transmission" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart". One can't go wrong with those songs and they didn't.

Opener was El Ten Eleven, a drummer and guitarist duo that plays instrumental rock with a lot of looping. At times it was pretty exciting when all the loops were going and the drums kicked in but other times it got kind of samey (a problem with this type of music).

Setlist
Set 1: New Order
Lonesome Tonight
Regret
What Do You Want From Me?
Vanishing Point
True Faith
Blue Monday

Set 2: Unknown Pleasures
Disorder
Day of the Lords
Candidate
Insight
New Dawn Fades
She's Lost Control
Shadowplay
Wilderness
Interzone
I Remember Nothing

Set 3: Closer
Atrocity Exhibition
Isolation
Passover
Colony
A Means to an End
Heart and Soul
Twenty Four Hours
The Eternal
Decades

Encore:
Ceremony
Transmission
Love Will Tear Us Apart

Nice write-up! As a music obsessive, it’s surprising (and kinda pathetic) how listless I am about going to shows…. but I do like living vicariously.

I AM genuinely interested your sense of the audience’s age. Would you peg most attendees at 50 plus? Lots of bald heads and greying goatees, etc etc ?

I don’t imagine a great deal of folks in their 20s- 30s really caring about JD or NO… but I could be wrong.

Bip Wrote:

> I AM genuinely interested your sense of the
> audience’s age. Would you peg most attendees at
> 50 plus? Lots of bald heads and greying goatees,
> etc etc ?
>
> I don’t imagine a great deal of folks in their
> 20s- 30s really caring about JD or NO… but I could
> be wrong.

Yeah, most of the crowd was middle-aged. A fair amount of couples. I would expect not many younger people would know who Peter Hook is and maybe the same with Joy Division but I think New Order is still pretty popular. My 17 year old daughter likes New Order and a lot of the newer music she listens to owes a debt to them.

Love that he is still playing "Lonesome tonight". That is one of my favorite NO songs.