I would have thought I was the wrong age and the wrong sex to start balling at a concert, but that’s just was happened to me last night as I finally saw my favourite band of all time, New Order, play the final show of the Big Day Out here in Perth, Australia.
The evening started off in typical Australian summerfest fashion with some guy in the beer garden pissing right on my leg. I am trying to be more peaceful these days so I just explained to him that urinating in a water bottle in a public place is not really a smart thing to do. He was quite reasonable about it, in a drunken monkey kind of way.
Anyway, this was all during a very forgettable set by Garbage who I’ve always thought had the most appropriate name in the business. I was only there to see New Order and maybe Dave Clarke later on, who sucked anyway.
So New Order were playing at 7.45 on the Orange Stage and me and my friend Kirsty had an hour two kill. This was spent lining up outside the bathroom for a while, losing my mobile phone, finding someone's glasses, giving them back) and having a couple more beers in the alcoholic's area. Then we slowly made our way down near the front of the stage.
I felt old. I am only in my late twenties but the kids there, well, most of them, seemed to only be old enough to know New Order via the latest two singles. Not a bad concept at all, but just a strange one to grasp -- especially after a big fat spliff. Whee!
Anyway, all of a sudden the boys plodded out and ripped into Crystal, it dragged on a bit and was a bit noisy at times, but who fucking cares, it was New Order and they obviously came to rock it. When Barney wasn’t doing his hilarious Spasticus Artisticus dance, he was introducing songs like the cheeky bugger he is: “This is called Close Range. A song about coming all over a girl’s forehead.”
Next - I think - came Regret and this is where little tears welled up in my bloodshot eyes. Well, as the words rolled along, certain memories came back and I kinda lost it there for about a minute or so. I kinda felt like a dork, ‘cause I’m sure some people saw me have a quick sob. Bah, what do I fucking care, at least I wasn't pissing on someone’s leg.
The set was just as long - timewise - as any of the other BDO shows but it seemed short. I think it was because NO played some of the longer oldies, like Temptation, and a shaky version of Your Silent Face. “Imagine you’re up in the Swiss Alps listening to a band play in a gorgeous little cafe and your girlfriend is under the table giving you a blowjob,” came the latter song’s intro.
Anyway, the problem with YSF was Barney leading the whole thing on guitar. Like the other more electronic numbers, the new American guitarists/keyboardist dude was kept busy behind the sample trigger thingy, trying to figure out what part of the songs Barney was going to play next, and adjust the drum patterns accordingly. Tricky stuff, I’d say
Hooky was in fine form, gesturing to the crowd and sort of asking them if his bass was loud enough. It was too loud at times and kind of blew out some of the underlying electronics during True Faith and Blue Monday. While Stephen was drumming his little heart out, Barney was busy making the band sound better; namely by screaming randomly into the microphone and whistling really fucking loudly during the songs. Haha. I love this guy.
Anyway, the set itself was almost identical to the one from Sydney which someone posted on here earlier. I am trying to think of other highlights but it was all kind of a blur: funny and sad and all that shit at the same time.
The Prodigy followed New Order on the stage next door and pulled a massive crowd of younger ravers etc. It’s interesting to see how a band half New Order’s age can be twice as washed up.
Anyway, I am so glad I went to face the masses to see New Order, it was totally worth it. Thanks for reading.
tony
