New Order 04/21/17 @ The Greek, Berkeley

[El Dingo]

I spent much of the 80's listening to New Order. I bought "Blue Monday" because the cover was (and still is) very cool. I think it was my first 12" single. Their early albums were minimalist synth-driven pop tunes reflecting lonliness and angst. Perfect for a Bay-Area kid trapped in Texas.

And so I keep seeing them live hoping for a reboot of punchy bass, keyboard hooks and crunchy giuitar, and every time they disappoint.

Friday night Lucy once again viciously yanked the football from this hopeful Charlie Brown.

The pre-band music was a DJ playing an unidentifiable mix of drum-n-bass crap where all you could really hear was the ... well, drum-n-bass.

The opening band was Politica, whom I could not really pay attention to because we were holding GA seats for my niece and her friends. I was stressing because trying to hold seats at the Greek is like reserving  spots in an Elementary School playground. There are cement benches with spray-painted numbers 'suggesting' seat assignments. We had a blanket spread but for some reason that did not stop the neighbors from gradually pushing it aside.

But, I digress.

New Order opened with a song I did not know. The song did continue with the mind-numbing disco beat of the DJ. They had decided this was a dance party. They played several songs from the part of their career I had stopped following, but every song had the accompanying disco drumbeat mixed way over the other instruments.

I said fuck it and fired up "Pokemon-Go" on my phone.

After all was said and done they had played 4 songs I knew and a stack-o-crap from their 90's catalog.

Stay tuned for next Friday's review of "Peter Hook and the Light" which promises to be the 'anti-New Order' remedy for this crappy band.