Concert: Sunday 2005-05-01 12:00:00 AM, Indio, California, United States of America - New Order Online

Coachella:

Couldn’t get as close as I wanted for this one, but I was considerably closer than I had been for Bauhaus the previous evening (sidenote: Peter Murphy dedicated “Dark Entries,” the last song, to Ian Curtis). (Had also briefly met with Sam, Al Jarvis, and Johnny Giles, and Andy at Coachella the previous day, who all seemed to be in good spirits, including Andy who has been so gracious as to call me a “septic come lately” before online.) Had watched Gang of Four with Allan (Green) and my gf Stephanie before New Order’s set (Tristan was there somewhere also, as we’d met up with him earlier that day), then Steph and I moved in a bit closer until we were maybe 50-70 feet from the stage. They turned the video screens on for this one, so we got a good spectacle even with plenty of people in front of us. I was surprised at how many people showed up for this one, most of whom just wanted to hear “the hits,” but that’s to be expected from a bunch of festival-going septics.

Atmosphere: Nice to hear this one after it was dropped from the Oakland setlist due to time (presumably). The sound was fucked up on this one and some other songs, but at least Barney didn’t whoop around a lot, having apologized for tearing his foot ligament (couldn’t make out his opening comments…something about surfing or his injury?). Still not the best intro song for a festival…too sedate and stately.

WFTSC: Me and my gf were the only ones around singing along to the new songs, but it still sounded great, even if the crowd weren’t too into it. At least I got to yell the lyrics into the frat boy types standing in front of me. Tee hee.

Regret: The crowd finally got really warmed up and all of the idiot girls around me and Steph were singing along to this. At some point between songs Hooky told the photographers to all fuck off, leaving Barney saying, “You can take all the pictures of me you want” or something to that tune.

Transmission: Good opening synth sound again…the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

Hey Now What You Doing/Krafty/Jetstream: Low crowd response. Barney kept saying “Hey, what do you know…another song from our new album.” A block of new stuff wasn’t what the crowd wanted, but at least I enjoyed it. HNWYD had some missed cues.

BLT: Barney did his best to dance around a bit, but he was clearly in pain and couldn’t swivel too much. Of course, your typical audience loved it. Barney missed his cue for the last lyrics and the song ended a line short.

LWTUA: Pretty good reception, with a nice singalong for the chorus. Hooky dedicated it to David (Sultan), then told him to fuck off. I laughed.

Crystal: Not the biggest crowd pleaser, but they wouldn’t have recognized when Barney missed his cues on this one anyway.

Blue Monday: Barney added a bit more keys to the opening of this one, and the Kylie sample made its appearance at the beginning as well (though it seemed to confuse most people). Barney was looking very much in pain from the hurt foot by this time and just stood still cringing for most of the song, then left the stage while Phil and Hooky finished the song. Hooky kept playing the bassline for quite some time after the song was over. Sounded great! And of course the crowd loved it, but fuck those people.

Overall, a fairly toned down show compared to Oakland. No Temptation or True Faith, which no doubt disappointed some people, as did the relative overabundance of new material given the one-hour time set time. Lots of missed cues and sound problems. Barney looking pissy and injured the whole time, as did everyone else. Mentioned at the end that they were sorry for not being in a better mood tonight but that’s how it goes. If I didn’t know any better, judging by all the missed cues, sound problems, foul moods, and unfamiliar songs, this could’ve been a gig from the mid-80’s. Or not. No surprises for this one. It was a great pleasure to watch the whole show with my lovely girlfriend at my side. A nice dessert after the far superior Oakland show.

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