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NATION UNDER AN OLD NEW ORDER
Nation Under An Old New Order
Area: One
August 7 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View
Spied on two not-so-random AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) screens: a somewhat fictionalized interchange between two SF music hounds who regularly trash and rehash the shows they attend. Baskingridge is an idealistic, wide-ranging music fan, and Extrachunky has no particular allegiance or favorite artist but loves to experience the latest trend, fixate on fashion and make a spectacle of herself in the VIP lounge. Last week, they battled afternoon Highway 101 traffic to get to Shoreline Amphitheatre's Area: One dance-music festival, which included Moby, OutKast, New Order with Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, the Roots, Rinocerose, Paul Oakenfold, the Orb and Derrick May. These working stiffs didn't manage to see all the acts, but they did chat about the few performers they both happened to catch.
Extrachunky: You're signed on, so I assume you made it back alive from Mountain View.
Basking Ridge: It was pretty much what you expected it to be: a big mix of people. Definitely people there to see the Roots. Definitely people there to see New Order, and then there was your typical kind of festival crew of pseudo, suburbanite hippie types.
Extrachunky: And never the twain shall meet. But the twain shall boogie down. A noticeably multiculti crew. There were more young kids of color -- Asian and Middle Eastern American and Latino -- at one big musical event than I've seen in a while. Did you go in the "Ford Focus Area" DJ tent in the parking lot, where the minirave was going on?
Baskingridge: Paul Oakenfold was playing, and I didn't want to stay. I've seen him before, and he plays the same sort of music every time, though he's considered to be the world's best DJ. I was just there to see New Order, Rinocerose and Derrick May, but I only got to see New Order because everything started so early.
Extrachunky: I thought May was a lot more interesting, and I thought Oakenfold was not too thrilling, and the visuals were really sleazy and slick-looking like a car commercial with all these babes floating around. By then, the tent was opened up, and people were spilling out onto the asphalt. Outside there was this crass Ford Focus car with the word "techno" and a girl in cargo pants painted on the side. Tacky!
The vibe was so different from the shed -- closer to the spirit of the clubs. Everyone was sweaty, moving, getting banged by backpacks. So what was with the guys with backpacks -- were they planning on camping in the Sun Microsystems office park down the street?
Baskingridge: I don't know. The half of the Roots show I saw was really good. They've been doing the foundation-of-hip-hop thing for a while. Dropping Salt-N-Pepa and doing the Run-DMC cover ["Peter Piper"]. The human-turntable thing was just awesome, and that drummer was just amazing. That stuff is so jazz-heavy.
Extrachunky: OutKast and the Roots were very source-y, historically minded hip-hoppers, so they were an interesting choice to have on the tour.
Baskingridge: I am glad I saw them and New Order, who I had never seen before. [New Order's earlier incarnation] Joy Division is one of my favorite groups ever, and I heard they were doing Joy Division songs and I was really excited about that, and they opened up with "Atmosphere."
Extrachunky: Why do you think they were finally doing Joy Division songs? They have enough of a catalog behind them. Was it just Billy Corgan's little whimsy?
Baskingridge: I think it's something of a tribute. Maybe they've just been waiting. It's been 20 years since [vocalist Ian Curtis] killed himself, and they might have thought it was time. The body was definitely cold.
Extrachunky: You don't think it was some kind of crass way of getting attention for their appearance on this tour? They already had Billy Corgan, even thought admittedly Billy wasn't playing very much. For good parts of the set, he was just standing there, picking at his fingernails and staring at the crowd with a little smile on his face, as if he had just noticed an audience for the first time.
Baskingridge: He was probably enjoying the fact that the main pressure of the show wasn't on him. But as far as them doing Joy Division covers, they know a lot of their audience also liked Joy Division. It's like Morrissey never used to do Smiths songs, and now he does three or four Smiths songs a show.
Extrachunky: Meaning, they have no integrity left.
Baskingridge: Or they just know that those songs are just amazing. "Atmosphere" is such a good song. I wish they would have played something different besides "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
Extrachunky: I saw New Order ages ago during the Low-life [1985] period, and yeah, they would probably have hung themselves rather than play any Joy Division songs back then. I can't remember them being so animated then. They had such an austere, uncompromising tone, musically and image-wise, when they first started out. This time, they made such an effort to pump up the crowd. Peter Hook is such a ham -- running around sticking his hand up in the air and playing the right side of the stage. He was working that dissipated-British-rock-star, Dave Stewart style.
Baskingridge: I know it's apples and oranges, but I couldn't imagine Ian Curtis hanging out with guys who would run around a stage yelling "Whooo!" the whole time.
But I thought it was great. They played most of the songs I wanted to hear from New Order: "Failure," "Love Vigilantes," "Regret" and "Temptation." This English guy who was sitting in front of us said, "I saw them about 20 years ago at the Hacienda in Manchester," and he was just so into it.
Extrachunky: It's funny how rhythm guitar-oriented they were. With three guitar players onstage, it got noisy. Interesting how Peter Hook carries the whole band melodically with the bass. Maybe he has every right to be a show-off.
Baskingridge: That's the thing about the new songs -- they sounded a lot more rocking, but they still had that New Order bass line. They were innovators, and you had Derrick May and Paul Oakenfold, innovators who had been there since the beginning. That's the one thing that really sucked about Area: One -- all the stuff I wanted to see was way too early.
Extrachunky: Well, it's Shoreline, and there are complaints about noise. That was another freakish thing for a lot of people who go out to clubs and dance. It was all very early, bright and sunny, and everything was all working like clockwork on a fairly tight schedule. If you got there early enough, you had a chance to see an interesting cross-section of performers for a decent price. Thank Ford, Intel and all the other sponsors for that, I guess. Bring on the Two-Step Tauruses.
Area: One
August 7 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View
Spied on two not-so-random AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) screens: a somewhat fictionalized interchange between two SF music hounds who regularly trash and rehash the shows they attend. Baskingridge is an idealistic, wide-ranging music fan, and Extrachunky has no particular allegiance or favorite artist but loves to experience the latest trend, fixate on fashion and make a spectacle of herself in the VIP lounge. Last week, they battled afternoon Highway 101 traffic to get to Shoreline Amphitheatre's Area: One dance-music festival, which included Moby, OutKast, New Order with Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, the Roots, Rinocerose, Paul Oakenfold, the Orb and Derrick May. These working stiffs didn't manage to see all the acts, but they did chat about the few performers they both happened to catch.
Extrachunky: You're signed on, so I assume you made it back alive from Mountain View.
Basking Ridge: It was pretty much what you expected it to be: a big mix of people. Definitely people there to see the Roots. Definitely people there to see New Order, and then there was your typical kind of festival crew of pseudo, suburbanite hippie types.
Extrachunky: And never the twain shall meet. But the twain shall boogie down. A noticeably multiculti crew. There were more young kids of color -- Asian and Middle Eastern American and Latino -- at one big musical event than I've seen in a while. Did you go in the "Ford Focus Area" DJ tent in the parking lot, where the minirave was going on?
Baskingridge: Paul Oakenfold was playing, and I didn't want to stay. I've seen him before, and he plays the same sort of music every time, though he's considered to be the world's best DJ. I was just there to see New Order, Rinocerose and Derrick May, but I only got to see New Order because everything started so early.
Extrachunky: I thought May was a lot more interesting, and I thought Oakenfold was not too thrilling, and the visuals were really sleazy and slick-looking like a car commercial with all these babes floating around. By then, the tent was opened up, and people were spilling out onto the asphalt. Outside there was this crass Ford Focus car with the word "techno" and a girl in cargo pants painted on the side. Tacky!
The vibe was so different from the shed -- closer to the spirit of the clubs. Everyone was sweaty, moving, getting banged by backpacks. So what was with the guys with backpacks -- were they planning on camping in the Sun Microsystems office park down the street?
Baskingridge: I don't know. The half of the Roots show I saw was really good. They've been doing the foundation-of-hip-hop thing for a while. Dropping Salt-N-Pepa and doing the Run-DMC cover ["Peter Piper"]. The human-turntable thing was just awesome, and that drummer was just amazing. That stuff is so jazz-heavy.
Extrachunky: OutKast and the Roots were very source-y, historically minded hip-hoppers, so they were an interesting choice to have on the tour.
Baskingridge: I am glad I saw them and New Order, who I had never seen before. [New Order's earlier incarnation] Joy Division is one of my favorite groups ever, and I heard they were doing Joy Division songs and I was really excited about that, and they opened up with "Atmosphere."
Extrachunky: Why do you think they were finally doing Joy Division songs? They have enough of a catalog behind them. Was it just Billy Corgan's little whimsy?
Baskingridge: I think it's something of a tribute. Maybe they've just been waiting. It's been 20 years since [vocalist Ian Curtis] killed himself, and they might have thought it was time. The body was definitely cold.
Extrachunky: You don't think it was some kind of crass way of getting attention for their appearance on this tour? They already had Billy Corgan, even thought admittedly Billy wasn't playing very much. For good parts of the set, he was just standing there, picking at his fingernails and staring at the crowd with a little smile on his face, as if he had just noticed an audience for the first time.
Baskingridge: He was probably enjoying the fact that the main pressure of the show wasn't on him. But as far as them doing Joy Division covers, they know a lot of their audience also liked Joy Division. It's like Morrissey never used to do Smiths songs, and now he does three or four Smiths songs a show.
Extrachunky: Meaning, they have no integrity left.
Baskingridge: Or they just know that those songs are just amazing. "Atmosphere" is such a good song. I wish they would have played something different besides "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
Extrachunky: I saw New Order ages ago during the Low-life [1985] period, and yeah, they would probably have hung themselves rather than play any Joy Division songs back then. I can't remember them being so animated then. They had such an austere, uncompromising tone, musically and image-wise, when they first started out. This time, they made such an effort to pump up the crowd. Peter Hook is such a ham -- running around sticking his hand up in the air and playing the right side of the stage. He was working that dissipated-British-rock-star, Dave Stewart style.
Baskingridge: I know it's apples and oranges, but I couldn't imagine Ian Curtis hanging out with guys who would run around a stage yelling "Whooo!" the whole time.
But I thought it was great. They played most of the songs I wanted to hear from New Order: "Failure," "Love Vigilantes," "Regret" and "Temptation." This English guy who was sitting in front of us said, "I saw them about 20 years ago at the Hacienda in Manchester," and he was just so into it.
Extrachunky: It's funny how rhythm guitar-oriented they were. With three guitar players onstage, it got noisy. Interesting how Peter Hook carries the whole band melodically with the bass. Maybe he has every right to be a show-off.
Baskingridge: That's the thing about the new songs -- they sounded a lot more rocking, but they still had that New Order bass line. They were innovators, and you had Derrick May and Paul Oakenfold, innovators who had been there since the beginning. That's the one thing that really sucked about Area: One -- all the stuff I wanted to see was way too early.
Extrachunky: Well, it's Shoreline, and there are complaints about noise. That was another freakish thing for a lot of people who go out to clubs and dance. It was all very early, bright and sunny, and everything was all working like clockwork on a fairly tight schedule. If you got there early enough, you had a chance to see an interesting cross-section of performers for a decent price. Thank Ford, Intel and all the other sponsors for that, I guess. Bring on the Two-Step Tauruses.
Thanks to: Marc Joseph
