THE CHARITABLE VIEW
“OK, so Bernard and Peter won't exchange Christmas cards for awhile? I still hang my bass near my knees, just like Hooky did in 19-eighty-somethin', when I saw 'im at Par For The Course, or was it the Dog 'N' Duck? Eh, I just wanna hear the tyooons, man, the tunes...”
THE UNCHARITABLE VIEW
“God, he's still overdriving that Clone Pedal, twanging those high strings, dragging that back catalog on his back? He's charging...how much? He's gonna sing all the songs? He couldn't carry a tune in a basket! Eh, think I'll pass on this one...”}
Mind you, I'm only paraphrasing, but I suspect the above-named comments constitute a fair representation of the dueling thoughts on Peter Hook's latest venture – in this case, returning to America and playing Joy Division's second album (CLOSER) in its entirety, plus selected nuggets from the band's back catalog.
One person's nostalgia is someone els's golden opportunity. Gary “Mani” Mounfield evidently forgot this principle in abusing his Twitter account last fall to swear off hanging with “talentless nostalgia fuckwit whores” – such as one P. Hook, whom he accused of “dragging his mates cadaver round the world getting himself paid.”
In fairness, Mani eventually apologized, but even those testy pronouncements didn't prevent him from rejoining his former cohorts, the Stone Roses, for a series of shows that should presumably pay a bit more than minimum wage. The moral of the story? Never believe what musicians say publicly, because business is business, and rock 'n' roll has no pension plan.
Going into this gig, however, I had few qualms. Hook was one-quarter of Joy Division, so he has as much right to play those songs as anyone (including old cohorts Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, whose latest band, Bad Lieutenant, also played Joy Division and New Order songs live). I mainly wondered...how's he going to pull off the vocal bit, since he's not exactly known for that sort of thing?
The answer came quickly, after the surprise opening blast of “Incubation,” a rare Joy Division instrumental – followed by the darker pastures of “Dead Souls,” where Hook effectively channeled Ian Curtis's angry-young-man-vocal persona. This trend held up well through a pair of obscure Warsaw nuggets (“Autosuggestion,” “From Safety To Where?”), and the CLOSER set, where drummer Tom Kehoe really came to the fore – surging across the tom-toms during “Atrocity Exhibition,” cracking the snare for “Isolation,” and deftly steering the churning tempo changes in “24 Hours.”
Hook and his bass-playing son, Jack Bates, meshed well together as a duo – it was impossible to tell where one began and the other left off (even if dear old Dad doesn't sing and play at the same time – which strikes some observers as annoying, but is charming to me, having dealt with the issue as a novice low-ender). Keyboardist Andy Poole fought to be heard at times, but stuck all the atmospheric flourishes in all the right places (notably on “The Eternal,” one of my favorite later-era Joy Division songs). Guitarist Nat Watson channeled his inner Sumner on “Colony” and “Disorder,” which bristled with a ferocity only hinted on their original recorded incarnations.
As promised, former Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan came out to lend his trademark nasal sneer for powerful surges through “Transmission,” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart”; had the night ended there, the crowd would have gone home with a smile. However, Hook and company trotted out for one more encore (“Atmosphere”/”Ceremony”), that closed the gig on a high note, since the latter song bridged the transition from Joy Division to New Order. (Hook couldn't resist poking fun at his colleagues on that score, telling Bates: “You'd better get your shit together, mate, or you might have to take that bass playing job in New Order.”)
While the band stuck to the recorded versions, they brought enough of their personalities to the proceedings – enabling songs like “Isolation,” “A Means To An End” and “Decades” to sound larger than life in this smallish setting. This wasn't some paint-by-numbers set, but one with enough nuance to make it memorable on its own terms. For the punters who plunked down their money, this night was about as close as they'll ever get to seeing the original Joy Division, whose 1980 American tour – as Hook reminded us – was due to begin in Chicago.
This night also marked the band's final American gig, which added an edge (as opposed to the “mushy middle” of a tour, when that sense of collective energy sometimes seems to flag). Where Hook and his crew go from here remains to be seen – even if that means eventually moving on from the past, since Joy Division's career was so brief. This lineup is definitely tight and proficient enough for the task, so we'll just have to see what they end up doing. (Hook has spoken of doing other album shows, such as New Order's first effort, MOVEMENT, which suffered from a half-baked Martin Hannett production; I'd like to hear what he does with that!)
On this night, however, everything seemed to fall together in the right place, but I couldn't leave without having the man sign my copy of Monaco's first CD – my favorite Hook side project, hands down – and his memoir of the Hacienda, HOW NOT TO RUN A CLUB. I couldn't help but tell him: “You know, I was involved in something like that – we made every fuckin' mistake that you guys did, and then some!” As you can imagine, we shared a good laugh about that one.
SET
Incubation/Dead Souls/Autosuggestion/From Safety To Where/The Atrocity Exhibition/Isolation/Passover/Colony/A Means To An End/HeartOn & Soul/The Eternal/24 Hours/Decades/Digital/Disorder/Shadowplay/Transmisson/Love Will Tear Us Apart/Atmosphere/Ceremony
PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT (CABARET METRO, 9/23/11: ANOTHER LOOK)
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"WHAT MAKES A GOOD ALBUM CONCERT?": PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT (CABARET METRO, CHICAGO, IL, 9/23/11)
Probably the biggest trend in the past couple of years is of bands tours where they play a single album (usually their best-regarded and usually best-selling) from beginning to end as part of their set.
Which makes it something of a dicey issue when bands do this.
I remember listening to a radio personality talk about going to a Steely Dan "Album" concert. He was looking forward to it beforehand - but afterwards only complained about how a bunch of songs with disturbing or menacing meanings were all neutered into "Smooth Jazz" by the way the band ended them (somehow do-do-do-do-do-waaah doesn't do them justice, but then this was a Steely Dan concert, so draw your own conclusions).
Then there's the band that has to do everything EXACTLY LIKE IT WAS ON THE ALBUM. That's why I didn't go see Rush when they did their MOVING PICTURES tour - their live releases show them trying their damnedest to exactly replicate their album music. This is as limiting as lack of talent; why not show some different takes on the songs?
So...what makes a good Album concert? The same things that make a good concert – a reasonable fidelity to the music, with enough of a stamp from the band to keep things interesting. We're not looking for perfection (that's what Studio Albums are for), but for a good translation to a live show.
Thankfully that can be said of Peter Hook and The Light when they played the whole of CLOSER in Chicago on September 23rd. The songs were faithful enough to the album (right down to the two "slow-down-and-stop" endings), but the live experience gave a different light to some of the songs -- “Isolation,” loosed from its tight, confined production (even for a Martin Hannett), actually took on epic, triumphant proportions, and “Decades”' ending flew off on its own towards the end, filling the theatre with sound instead of closing in on itself (as it does on the album).
The band also played a number of other songs, from the Warsaw tapes to [material from] UNKNOWN PLEASURES to the “Ceremony” cut that was meant to be a Joy Division release but was released by New Order. While one can't help but wonder how much of it was people living an alternate past – especially those who looked like they were balding and/or graying (Joy Division's first show in the States was scheduled in Chicago), overall it was a good night.
Which makes it something of a dicey issue when bands do this.
I remember listening to a radio personality talk about going to a Steely Dan "Album" concert. He was looking forward to it beforehand - but afterwards only complained about how a bunch of songs with disturbing or menacing meanings were all neutered into "Smooth Jazz" by the way the band ended them (somehow do-do-do-do-do-waaah doesn't do them justice, but then this was a Steely Dan concert, so draw your own conclusions).
Then there's the band that has to do everything EXACTLY LIKE IT WAS ON THE ALBUM. That's why I didn't go see Rush when they did their MOVING PICTURES tour - their live releases show them trying their damnedest to exactly replicate their album music. This is as limiting as lack of talent; why not show some different takes on the songs?
So...what makes a good Album concert? The same things that make a good concert – a reasonable fidelity to the music, with enough of a stamp from the band to keep things interesting. We're not looking for perfection (that's what Studio Albums are for), but for a good translation to a live show.
Thankfully that can be said of Peter Hook and The Light when they played the whole of CLOSER in Chicago on September 23rd. The songs were faithful enough to the album (right down to the two "slow-down-and-stop" endings), but the live experience gave a different light to some of the songs -- “Isolation,” loosed from its tight, confined production (even for a Martin Hannett), actually took on epic, triumphant proportions, and “Decades”' ending flew off on its own towards the end, filling the theatre with sound instead of closing in on itself (as it does on the album).
The band also played a number of other songs, from the Warsaw tapes to [material from] UNKNOWN PLEASURES to the “Ceremony” cut that was meant to be a Joy Division release but was released by New Order. While one can't help but wonder how much of it was people living an alternate past – especially those who looked like they were balding and/or graying (Joy Division's first show in the States was scheduled in Chicago), overall it was a good night.
HARBOR VISION FESTIVAL WRAPUP (8/12-14/11) W/THE CHAIRMAN & CO.
Whether they just dropped by the neighborhood, or spent the whole weekend, the first Harbor Vision Festival offered something for everyone during its three-day run (August 12-14) at the Dwight P. Mitchell City Center on the corner of Main Street, and Pipestone Avenue. Featured activities ranged from dance groups, to youth talent contests and performances by local artists like Charlene Jones-Clark, and Johnnie Edwards – and, on Sunday, a five-hour “Gospel Extravangaza” to close the proceedings. For Harbor Vision Festival Chairman Kareemah El-Amin, everything fell together exactly as she and her organizing committee anticipated – having had only three months, a fraction of the lead time that such major events require.
"It's like a big block party downtown. There's so much love in the air,” El-Amin said Friday, during Jones-Clark's set. “It's about engaging people, and bringing people together under a common cause – which is to bring back this city. Look, it's nine o'clock at night, and kids are playing basketball – they can do that anywhere, but they want to do it here.” El-Amin estimated that about 500 to 600 people per day would have passed through the festival site by the event's conclusion. “I think we hit a home run, because so many people didn't think it would turn out as well as it did. We've already shut everybody down who thought that this wouldn't happen,” she said. (The committee closed up shop for 2011 with a final sum-up meeting on August 23.)
Livery co-owner Leslie Pickell is well aware of the challenges – having spent six years on the Coming Home Coming Together Concert Committee., and also as a key organizer of the venue's Artoberfest event. “This is my third time over here today, actually,” Pickell said. “I think it's got great potential – I honestly we wish could do this every weekend. It's hard work doing this, to get people really inspired around the vision of what you're doing, and I think Kareemah has done a great job. That's why it's happening.”
Friday's lineup proved a case in point, with Jones-Clark and Edwards taking turns to front a four-piece house band – with help from by DJ James Sims, on turntables, and Marcus Robinson, on guitar – through R&B hits like Michael Jackson's 1979 breakout smash, “Rock With Me.” The band also improvised reggae and funk moods behind an hour of local spoken word artists from the “Xpression Session” – which El-Amin hosts monthly at the Livery, in Benton Harbor, and is now in its third year.
FULL DISCLOSURE (CHAIRMAN'S LOG...) For me, the best part involved being able to float (vocally speaking) over the house band, whose crack musos included Marcus Robinson (guitar), and Johnnie Edwards (bass). I could simply leave the guitar playing to someone else, and just get down to the business of...
...(ahem)...representin', as they call it sometimes. I just had to project, and let the band take care of business, which they did...the minute I heard that slinky l'il reggae groove slithering out of those speakers, I felt like I Knew exactly what to do, and it wasn't too long before I flew from simple recitation, to freeform toasting and improv-ing off my own words.
I managed to do two numbers, including "I Was A Teenage Subversive," my self-described "political monster movie" ("I was a teenage subsversive when I saw the siren song of sex for profit being touted on billboards, serving up another blonde on the end of a fork...and I realized, this equation need not include me..."), and: ..."A Revolution Of The Mind," which basically states that we will never change our conditions, until we get past that "it's always been done that way" mentality ("Enough! Let us be done checking stocks & shares, divided among the propertied classes like so many dried-up old rotten apples...what & where the hell did it get us? Nothing!").
...AND NOW (BACK TO THE JOURNALISTIC BIT)
The festival's sounds and sentiments proved pleasing to St. Joseph residents Greg and Andrea Szczotka, who grew up in East Detroit during the height of '60s-era Motown, and recently marked their 44th wedding anniversary. As longtime Michael Jackson fans, the pair couldn't resist a quick dance during Edwards' version of “Rock With Me.” “We like to dance – we just like to go out and enjoy that (kind of thing). I saw them putting up the stage, and we said, 'Let's drive down tonight, and see what's going on,'” Greg Szczotka said. “We spend a lot of time in Benton Harbor.”
Heavy rains and thunderstorms halted all proceedings at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, but the festival resumed by 7 p.m. with more competitive dance activity, and finished strongly with Sunday's gospel music show – spearheaded by Bonita Mitchell, who served on the festival's entertainment committee. El-Amin had originally budgeted $50,000 for this year's event, but the final number ended up closer to $13,000 or $14,000 – bolstered by a lot of in-kind contributions, she said.
Those contributions came from local residents and committee members like Tim Johnson, for example, who handled all the festival's electrical work, and helped bring its site layout to life, El-Amin said. “The in-kind (contributions) probably made it (the final amount) more, but what we actually had in dollars – a lot of it was, people actually did things for us. So we made a lot happen on a lot of determination. We had lots of different skill sets that came to the table,” she said.
Johnson worked from a Google map of the area to help create the site design, which changed two or three times, El-Amin said. “I got a bird's eye view of it, and then I just wrote on the map where everything was going to go – from what Kareemah said,” he said on Saturday, during the rain delay. “I said, 'Wait a minute, why don't we get a picture off the computer? Sure enough, it printed it out, and it printed out a good picture.” Such help makes or breaks events like Harbor Vision, which also made the final design so important, El-Amin said. “It was very intentional. That was the whole point – it (the layout) allowed them to come through vendors, allowed you to see the main stage, and get to the other things, as well.”
Concerning next year's event (scheduled for August 10-12, 2012), El-Amin wants to start organizing in January, with a $100,000 budget as the starting point. That will allow a longer lead time to land corporate sponsors, recruit more vendors and build momentum to help the festival grow, El-Amin said. “What we'd like to do, ultimately, is maybe give some scholarships out, and give really good prizes for talent – there's so many talented people. That's the opportunity that we can provide, but we have to be able to bring some of those dollars back into the festival. We can do that corporate sponsorship, and also, through people paying to be vendors, and things of that nature, so we can provide a platform to launch people's careers."