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Thunderbird Stadium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (2001)
It was great! I have seen them three times previously (once in Toronto during the Republic tour in 1992, and twice more in the U.K. during Recycle in 1998. I still can’t believe that after having travelled so far to see them in the past, they would happen to come to Vancouver, where I now live.
They came on a bit earlier than I expected, at about 5:30. The crowd was friendly, laid back, polite, not overly rowdy. Much less crazy then the scene New Year’s Eve in London in 1998. Although the crowd lacked a bit of energy, the plus side was that it was nice to get up close without getting jostled or trampled.
Here is their set list; I am pretty sure about the songs, but the order may not be quite right:
1. Atmosphere
2. Crystal
3. Regret
4. Turn My Way
5. Your Silent Face
6. Bizarre Love Triangle
7. Touched By The Hand of God
8. Temptation
9. Love Will Tear Us Apart
10. 60 mph
11. Blue Monday
(same songs as in San Francisco, except that they omitted True Faith)
Here are my thoughts on the concert:
They sounded great! Barney was in fine form, enthousiastic, bantering with the audience between songs. He seemed to be having a great time. He didn’t seem to mind that the crowd was somewhat quiet. Hooky looked somewhat tired, like he just got out of bed or something. I think he was still suffering from that Japanese flu virus. Nonetheless, he was still great, with his signature style, swashbuckling bass-pirate that he is.
Barney introduced Steve as "the most obnoxious man in the music business", obviously very facetiously.
Billy Corgan seemed to add a nice dimension, he stayed (appropriately) low-key, playing back-up guitar for the most part, except for singing on "Turn My Way".
I thought all the songs were great, except perhaps "Turn My Way" was a bit so-so. Crystal was quite good. 60 mph was a pleasant surprise, lots of energy to it.
I am not sure who the other back-up guitarist was (?Vulture or something like that). He also did some keyboards on some songs, basically taking Gillian’s place. He seemed to play pretty well.
The in-between song banter was at times quite funny. Early on, Hooky said: "Hey Billy, I see your sister over here!"
Barney heard a guy yell out a request (for I think Ceremony), and said, "sure just for you, we’ll play it, yeah right!" Then asked him ("the guy with the yellow and blue sweater") what his name was, then said "I feel like I’ve known you all my life". The way he said it was quite funny, but you had to be there.
Luckily there was very little rain during most of the set. It started to rain again a bit towards the end. (Later, it rained fairly heavy for Outcast – ha-ha :-). Barney commented that he liked the rain, reminds him of England.
Hooky made a big gaffe, but apologized quite sincerely. He made a comment about it being slippery up on stage (it wasn’t really). The crowd reacted appropriately to the suggestive comment, so Hooky said "You Americans are all the same…". The crowd protested quite appropriately with a loud "Hey!!!" (We Canadians do not like being confused for Americans). The look on Hooky’s face, you could tell that he was embarrassed for having inadvertently insulted our national pride. He asked for forgiveness, and dug himself a bit deeper by saying that he will forgive us. Barney rescued him by cutting in, saying "Don’t listen to what he says, listen to me, I am the voice of truth, and this is Temptation!" It came across as facetious, not pompous. Again you had to be there.
Barney later introduced Love Will Tear us Apart by saying it was the first time playing it in Canada, with a bit of extra emphasis on "Canada" to make up for Hooky’s gaffe.
Temptation was great as always, Regret also was amazing. Blue Monday and BLT came across also very well. I was amazed at how great they sounded. They sounded even better than on the Reading 98 CD/DVD, despite the crowd not being as energetic. I wish they could have played longer, but I knew to expect a short set (because of the word from the San Fran show). I would have loved to hear "Ceremony" and "True Faith" especially, and some Technique stuff too would have been good. (Of course, in an ideal world, they would have played for 3 hours!)
Overall: excellent! It was all about the music, no other bullshit, which is what I admire about New Order.
See you all tomorrow night at the Gorge!
Rob
Source: NewOrderOnline.com (Robert Roy) |
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