Like I said in my last post, the show was great. My girlfriend and I made our way into the crowd as soon as the Roots left the stage. After a few minutes we found ourselves about 10 feet from the stage, almost directly in front of Hooky's mic stand. It became apparent quickly that most of the people in the crowd were there waiting for Outkast (who were on after NO) But we did manage to meet a few nice people who were there just for NO. In the words of one fan I met, "I paid $70 for New Order. I could give a shit about the rest of the bands."
After about 30 minutes of waiting, I turned to say something to my girlfriend. As I turned back around, there was Peter Hook looming above me, arms crossed and staring blankly into the crowd. Soon the rest of the band were on stage and they were playing Atmosphere. I've never been a big fan of the Reading 98 version, but tonight it sounded beautiful. Bernard held back on all the wooping that apparently has plagued previous gigs. I can't imagine NO doing a better job of this song. It really was perfect.
After that Bernard stepped up to the mic and made some comment about how he loves America. Then he said, "Here's a song we haven't played in 24 hours." Regret. At times this has been my favorite NO song, often on repeat in my cd player. Tonight it didn't dissapoint. Everything about it was great. Best part however, sometime during the song a beautiful rainbow formed over the hills. I'm pretty sure NO had something to do with it.
Next on the list was Crystal. They started out with the piano/synth intro from the extended version wich really got my hopes up (love the extended instrumental at the end) however as soon as the intro was over it became the edit. Apart from the keyboard bits in the break, Phil Cunningham was down playing guitar with Bernard and Sick Boy (Corgan, who looked like he was dead he was so pale). Crystal, for lack of a better term, really "rocked" tonight. Nobody in the crowd seemed to know the song, but after the song a number of people were making comments about how much they liked it. Bernard also made the point of explaining to the crowd that Crystal was their newest single and they need to go buy it "right now". Maybe he didn't realize that it hasn't been released yet...
From here on my recollection gets of the set list gets a little fuzzy. 90 degree sun, tightly packed crowd and the fact that I had been walking arounf for five hours at ths point had all led to fatigue. Here is a list of the rest of the songs (if anyone has a better recollection of the set please let me know):
Atmosphere Regret Crystal Love Will Tear Us Apart True Faith Your Silent Face Bizarre Love Triangle Touched by the Hand of God Turn My Way 60 mph Temptation Blue Monday
Overall it was a great show. My life really is complete now. LWTUA was fantastic, as was most of the set. Sick Boy sounded horrible on Turn My Way. Several people in the audience actually started booing very loudly when Bernard introduced him for the song. Peter looked like he was having the most fun on stage. Bernard kinda looked pissed (probably cuz he started singing early on three different songs, which led to a silent chorus on BLT). There really wasn't any interaction between the band members, though. Hooky caught on to the fact that the security down front had to look at the crowd the entire time, so he started swing his bass within inches of their heads. Pretty funny. He was straddling a bunch of amps and lights as well. He really was the star of the show.
I know I've probably missed some things but oh well. I just woke up. I'm getting my film developed today, so I should have some pics online Monday or Tuesday. Oh yeah, I'd like to give a shout out to all the ass-hole Outkast fans that started crashing their way through the crowd before NO was done. F**k all of you. Especially that ass that elbowed my girlfriend. Hope I didn't punch you in the face too hard.
Great show, thanks New Order. Hope too see you soon!
Laters, Jeff Sheldon
