Bad Lieutenant Electric Ballroom, London 19/3/10
4/5
By: Tom Hocknell
With the estranged Peter Hook touting his half-recalled Hacienda stories throughout the countryside, he is presumably avoiding Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Phil Cunningham, whose new outfit Bad Lieutenant are similarly touring. The band name eschews previous controversy of Joy Division and New Order’s fascist implications and the new music reflects this safer approach. Not to say it’s bad - it simply competes with two of this country’s best back catalogues, sitting most closely to Sumner’s (underrated) work with Johnny Marr in Electronic.
Tonight it’s a joy to see such a pedigree band in a small venue, and the intimacy is soon demonstrated two songs in, when some wag requests ‘83 album track ‘Age of Consent’, to which Bernard grins and immediately rewards by launching into ‘Regret’. From this moment it is clear that Sumner and co. have relaxed their militant attitude to their past, seemingly forgetting that even New Order didn’t play Joy Division songs for the 80s. The muted reception to new songs, such as ‘Sink or Swim’s duet between Sumner and fellow lead-singer Jake Evans, is perhaps predictable, if unfair, as they swap affecting harmonies sometimes missing from earlier songs.
That’s not to say the new material is completely overshadowed. One of Bad Lieutenant’s best songs, and current single, ‘Twist of Fate’, easily holds its own, with its refrain of ‘and the beat just goes on, and on, and on’ being perfectly cued by a propulsive ‘Crystal’. Revelation of the night is ‘Poisonous Intent’ morphing into some unheard classic, underpinned by a muscular synth line missing from the album version. Another surprise is the house-surge of the Chemical Brothers ‘Out Of Control’, on which Sumner leant vocals. It’s massive, and throws the crowd back to shape throwing days, filling Camden’s ballroom with lasers and contagious grins. At the unmistakable keyboards of ‘Temptation’ exploding to life, this bonhomie almost tips the roof off, as the crowd go ballistic.
What is effectively New Order playing with such celebration is surreal, particularly coming from a band you expect to be reluctance personified. Put simply, they’ve lightened up, which can’t be entirely due to the absence of Peter Hook. However, the long unsung hero is Stephen Morris, who continues his ambition of being a drum machine with a ferocious intensity unchanged from the early days. He sits in the gloom with a sniper’s concentration, and without his fierce tattoo on ‘Transmission’, the song would drop a few notches in the pop canon.
If there’s any weakness tonight, it’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, which as the last encore, does not touch as it should. This is partly due to Sumer’s inappropriate yelps of ‘come on!’ and partly a result of it being the only song this evening missing Peter Hook. It’s his song, built as it is around that bass riff. Not that it really matters, as a the number of people leaving the building humming Bad Lieutenant tunes, demonstrates there is life in this story yet.
Artists in this article: Bad Lieutenant
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