It had been a while since New Order have played Merriweather Post Pavilion, but singer Bernard Sumner remembered the venue—specifically the red barn towards the back of the lawn section. The Manchester band is in the middle of a U.S. tour and played to a filled out venue Sunday night that found the group dusting off old hits and showing off new Peter Hook-less material.
After 2005’s Waiting for the Siren’s Call and the subsequent tour, bassist Hook quit New Order and after some false starts, Sumner put the band to rest. In 2011, a reinvigorated New Order, still without Hook but with the addition of former keyboardist and founding member Gillian Gilbert took to the international festival scene to dust off their old hits. Hook has since been touring with a new band playing Joy Division and New Order records in full, and while his presence would have been appreciated for completeness sake, bassist Tom Chapman did an excellent-fill in for Hook.
The band tailored their set to their fans, playing all the classics with nary any filler. Sumner and company started the set with Low-Life instrumental “Elegia” morphing into Get Ready‘s first single “Crystal.” Over the course of their 16 song set the band referenced their glory days playing hits like “True Faith,” “Bizarre Love Triangle,” and “Age of Consent.” The way back machine didn’t stop there, New Order peppered in a cover of “Isolation” by their former band Joy Division, changing it slightly to have it fit in nicely with the rest of their catalog.
New Order closed out the set with two of their best-known songs “Blue Monday” and “Temptation.” The former was a given, though the band seemed to be disinterested in playing the song. “Temptation” however was as bright as the recorded version and was an exciting highlight of the set.
The encore consisted of three Joy Division songs and a lengthy tribute to Ian Curtis. Instead of changing anything up, New Order soldiered through, “Atmosphere,” “Shadowplay,” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” With two members of Joy Division present, this is as close as fans can get to seeing that band play in 2013.
Holy Ghost! served as a fitting opener, playing tracks from their underrated self-titled debut record and a couple new tracks from their soon to be released sophomore album Dynamics. Highlights included opener “Jam for Jerry” and the Factory Records inspired “Hold On.”The two new songs did not hit a a different direction for the band, but did prove Holy Ghost! is adept at writing great hooks.
