Despite not being able to remember that particular moment where I first heard New Order, I distinctly remember the first time that I heard their song The Perfect Kiss. It was the summer of 1985, and there was a segment of music used as the soundtrack for an athletic montage on the news. It only lasted for about a minute, maybe even less, but there was something about that percolating synth line locked in time with the drum machine, something that sounded so immediate and vital. I recognized Bernard Sumner's vocals and I made a mental note to investigate further the next time I visited the record store (this was in 1985, so I wasn't working there yet). And as luck would have it, when I made it out to the store a few days later they were just receiving a box of new stock that included a cassette copy of the "Low-Life" album. You know, the one that has The Perfect Kiss on it, the one that just happens to be among the greatest albums ever made. I didn't know any of those things at the time, but I had a good feeling about that cassette, and I ended up buying it before they even had a chance to put it out on display.
There's something about "Low-Life" that's so well crafted, so sonically ideal, so perfectly produced. Listening to it with headphones I was fully immersed in a new world of sounds that came at me from every angle, left to right, back and front, all around me. There was deep bass that I could feel in my soul, and keyboards that soared majestically over top of everything. There was a deadpan vocal delivery that rooted everything in the real world. And there were frogs too. A whole chorus of them. And sheep. A fair number of sheep as well. The cassette also included the extended version of The Perfect Kiss on it, and that extended version was glorious. Imagine a song that you loved being made even longer and in many ways better with the addition of an extra verse, more music, and a chorus of frogs, and then multiply all that awesomeness by a factor of ten bazillion. That was the gloriousness of the extended version of The Perfect Kiss, and it remains one of the most amazing pieces of music ever.
In addition to the brilliance of the music on the album, "Low-Life" had an appealing level of mystery about it as well, in that there was very minimal information or notes inside and the only images were a set of distorted and blurry black and white pictures of the band. There wasn't really anything to connect people with it, nothing to confirm that real human beings were actually responsible for making this music. There was a tremendous distance between the songs that I was hearing and the people that were making them, and that seemed so fascinating to me. It was an aesthetic that New Order maintained to varying degrees for most of their career, and it's a lot of the reason why I've always thought of their music as having a life of it's own, music that just came into being as a result of a sheer need to exist.
I could go on about how amazing "Low-Life" is, and I could tell you about how
much I enjoy every song on the album (well, actually I'm not a huge fan of Love Vigilantes, but everything else is pretty brilliant). I
could tell you in intricate detail about all the bits and pieces that
make "Low-Life" one of my life-long desert island discs, and how it turned me into a confirmed New Order fan, and over the next couple of years my appreciation for them would continue to grow. But I don't think I need to, I'm pretty sure that you get the idea.
About a year after "Low-Life" was released, they followed it up with "Brotherhood", and then they released the album that pretty much defined them as a band. "Substance" was a singles collection, which was particularly cool because most of New Order's singles didn't appear on any of the albums (The Perfect Kiss being a significant exception). "Substance" was made even better by the fact that it was a singles collection filled with extended versions of all the songs, speaking to the growing DJ culture that wanted to get people on the dancefloor. Listening to it you can hear the seeds and roots of rave culture, electronica, electroclash and a hundred other genres all beginning to grow. Add in a second disc of B-Sides and one could make a very valid case that "Substance" is the greatest singles collection ever released.
By anybody.
Ever.
As fate would have it, when "Substance" was released New Order went on tour to promote it, and sure enough the tour included a stop in Toronto at the CNE Grandstand, and in an effort to boost interest in the show (and to sell more tickets in larger venues than they had previously been playing in North America) the Substance tour also featured Echo and The Bunnymen and Gene Loves Jezebel.
I'll admit that I wasn't that interested in seeing Gene Loves Jezebel, but my friends that were going to the show with me were, so I was willing to give them a chance. Unfortunately their live show didn't do anything to change my opinion. It was bland, lifeless, and poorly delivered. They made constant assurances to the audience that the Jezebels would come to life at night which made me roll my eyes, and the lead singer got stuck in the middle of an uninterested floor section during an ill advised stage dive at the end of their set. It was all pretty lame, and I wasn't very interested in any of it.
But I was really interested in seeing Echo and the Bunnymen, and when they came out dressed in leather jackets and sunglasses with these really awesome haircuts they totally won me over. Shrouded in stark white lights and dry ice they were a revelation, electric and vital, absolutely amazing. Lead singer Ian McCulloch was a totally charismatic front man, a velvet voiced crooner who led the band through a tight set of songs that have since become classic fan favorites. It was an absolutely incredible set, and when they came out to cover Paint it Black for an encore with the bass drum pulsing urgently and a manic guitar line that rang through the venue I think I may have had an orgasm. It was perfect, an absolutely perfect concert moment. What an amazing set they played that night! I've seen the Bunnymen a bunch of times since then, but I've never seen them as electrifying as they were that very first time I saw them. I'm getting chills just thinking about it...
And then after a short break it was time for New Order. It was about 9pm, the sun was just starting to set, and there was an electric feeling in the air that kept everybody's mood way up until the stage went dark and New Order came out amid a wash of blue and purple lighting and started the set with Ceremony. Such an amazing song to open with! The bass line, that staccato rhythm on the hi-hat, that guitar riff that opens the song, the refrain of "Heaven knows it's got to be this time...", it was all fucking brilliant. If Ceremony was the only song New Order played that night I would have been ecstatic. But that was just the opening song. It was going to get even better.
After that they played Everything's Gone Green which I've always liked, I'm always a sucker for a nice synth arpeggio, and it's paired so nicely with that jangly guitar and the steady snare drum beat. It's really a great song to just close your eyes and swing your head along with, that special kind of secret solo dancing that people who spend a lot of time alone in their bedrooms listening to music on headphones know how to do. I would like to say that I am a master of that kind of dancing, as are a number of people who saw New Order that night. It was a nice opportunity for us all to be alone together listening to awesome music with our eyes closed...
Temptation was next, and I dare anybody to try and deny the majesty and beauty of this piece of music, surely one of the most uplifting songs ever written. Ever. Don't even think that you can change my opinion on this. Temptation is absolutely awesome, and the version that they played that evening was exhilarating and amazing and I jumped up, and down, and I turned around, and it was pretty blissful.
By this point it was apparent that they were playing the "Substance" album straight through from start to finish. Which meant that the next song they played was Blue Monday, which apart from being a fantastic song, is also a testimony to all that is amazing about music. It's monumental, a truly high watermark in the modern music era. In many ways it defined electronic music as we know it, an absolutely perfect piece song in all ways. And I was seeing it live. A really great post-apocalyptic future-shock monster of a live version that was so good I may have wept. It was amazing.
Now I have to admit that my memory gets a little bit hazy here. On the Substance album Confusion and Thieves Like Us are next, but I'm pretty sure that they didn't play Confusion that night and I think that Thieves Like Us was played as an encore. I've checked on both Setlist.FM and the New Order gig database, and the set list for the Toronto show suggests that they did indeed play these two songs, but I'm inclined to think otherwise. On a related note I'm pretty sure they didn't play True Faith which was the new single at the time. So yeah, slight variations from the running order of Substance, but not significant enough to lessen my enjoyment of the show.
The Perfect Kiss followed, and live it was every bit the revelation that it was the first time that I heard it. They played it pretty much straight through in it's extended form, not really deviating from the structure of the song, but there was an urgency and manic energy to it that made it really stand out. Peter Hook played a set of electronic drums for the percussion break, and he really pounded those pads, almost to the point where I thought he was going to break them. It was a physical and organic performance that totally complemented the icy cool electronic sound of the original version and I loved every minute of it. And of course it included the chorus of frogs. Really, it wouldn't be The Perfect Kiss without the chorus of frogs.
Subculture was up next and I'm sorry to say it, but I went to use the bathroom at that point. Sorry, I'm sure there are New Order fans out there who think that's sacrilegious, but when you have to go you have to go. And I'd much rather miss Subculture than Shellshock. On album Shellshock is about six and a half minutes of stabs and vamps and strangled notes and gated vocals and zany stereo placement and 80s Teen Classic Movie flavoured awesomeness, and live it was all of these things and more.
State of the Nation came next and it went by in a frantic rush of heat and pulse. It's a great song, but it has an awkward place on the "Substance" album, sandwiched between two of New Order's best songs. Considered in isolation State of the Nation is a solid and satisfying song that works well on it's own. But between the other two tracks I find it a little bit... wanting. And while I enjoyed their live run through it that night, I found myself much more excited about the next song.
Which was of course Bizarre Love Triangle, a huge, epic, enormous track that sounds like it was written at the very moment the Big Bang went bang. And while I've made no bones about my love of The Perfect Kiss and my admiration for Blue Monday, I think that Bizarre Love Triangle is the archetypal New Order song, the song that best captures the Platonic ideal of the band. It has a fully sequenced synth-based orchestration that plays around with the soundfield, pushing and pulling at the boundaries of the musical space that it creates in your head. It has an uplifting and optimistic lyric delivered by a cynical and detached observer. It has highs and lows, peaks and valleys, moments of incredible beauty and wonder that have to be heard to be fully appreciated. And you can dance to it. Not just that shuffling head swaying thing you do with your eyes closed, I'm talking real honest to goodness life affirming celebratory ecstatic dancing that you feel with all of your heart. That's what Bizarre Love Triangle is, and on September 3rd 1987 when New Order played it live in Toronto it rose to those very dizzying heights and burned like a star going supernova. And I fully know that I'm mixing metaphors there, but damnit, Bizarre Love Triangle was just that good that night, ending the set and leaving the audience in a state of bliss.
As stated earlier, I'm pretty sure that they played Thieves Like Us as an encore, and it was pretty cool. As a closing song for the evening it did make a little more sense than some of the other tracks would have, there's a certain more mellow vibe to it that kind of brought the audience back down to earth, a post-coital cigarette type feeling that sort of helped ease all of us back into the real world after a couple of hours spent dancing to the music of the spheres. It was a good way to end the set and I'm happy with that.
With all this said, there's no question in my mind that seeing New Order in 1987 was the perfect time to see them. Their live set that night was a collection of awesome songs that inspired me to dance and reach ecstatic heights and I had a really awesome time, and at the end of the day there's not much more that you can hope for from a live show. Plus, they had a chorus of frogs. Nobody else I've ever seen live has ever reached the same level of awesomeness that comes from a chorus of frogs...
No comments:
Post a Comment