New Order, O2 Academy, Glasgow
Jonathan Geddes Five stars
After New Order played their last note, the unmistakeable sound of Donald Where’s Yer Troosers started playing on the PA. Given what had preceded it, there was surprise that it didn’t provoke dancing too, as this was a relentless set fixated on movement, and as dazzling as it was surprising.
The surprise came from the fact that New Order had previously seemed headed towards that category of bands with the best days disappearing rapidly behind them. Yet here they were dropping in new cuts from the recent Music Complete album that held their own, and then riding that invigorated nature throughout a two hour set.
The opening Singularity provided a driving, lengthy number that nestled nicely alongside the oldie in Ceremony that followed it, and a later version of Plastic added sci-fi synths to the fore, complete with a suitably themed video backdrop. The wall of visuals certainly added to the show, as did the billowing smoke machine that enveloped the crowd during an encore that revisited Joy Division before a communal rave-up on show-closer Blue Monday.
But it was the band themselves who held the eyes the most. Bernard Sumner, to put it politely, is not the strongest vocalist in the world, yet he was on form here, sashaying to Tutti Frutti's disco while Stephen Morris was a force of drumming, particularly in a second half that grew increasingly rhythmic. Then there's Gillan Gilbert, who seems to have helped the band refocus since she joined again, not to mention delivering the synths at the music's heart. When they spun through a revamped back catalogue, including celebratory versions of True Faith and Temptation, it struck a rich vein of sheer euphoria few bands can match.
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