New Order fired up their set in full rock mode at Glasgow’s Hydro with the 2001 single Crystal, during a genre-hopping evening the band delivered a sublime Age of Consent.
Stephen Morris proves he’s still the fastest drummer in the West with his mile-a-minute playing during an excellent version of Ceremony. His wife on keyboards, Gillian Gilbert, remains serene and almost motionless throughout the set.
Bernard Sumner playing a Gibson SG moans about the Glasgow weather, suggesting it’s even worse than Manchester but remains on good form and in fine voice. He introduces a dance section of the show that features a show-stealing Vanishing Point from 1989’s classic album Technique.
The pulsating beat and light show, along with Sumner’s voice takes us back to the second summer of love for a few minutes at least. Post-Peter Hook tracks such as Be A Rebel and the Kraftwerkian Plastic prove the band still has plenty of life in them beyond the decade that they helped define. Towards the end of the set crowd-pleasing fixtures and hits, True Faith, Blue Monday and Temptation, are all assisted by stunning graphics and a mesmerising lights hat move the atmosphere up several gears.
For the encore, the band returned to their Joy Division roots while summoning Ian Curtis on the big screen during Decades, Transmission and Love Will Tear Us Apart. Another image of Curtis appears alongside the Campaign Against Living Miserably helpline, a charity to help those in crisis.
It’s a poignant moment.
New Order has faced many struggles but tonight feels like another triumph when you listen to the crowd in raptures, even Sumner seems genuinely thankful and emotional, it was one of those nights.
