New Order began their U.S. tour at Radio City Music Hall (review, setlist)

lead photo by PSquared

UPDATE: check out pics from the show here.

“This is a nice venue,” Bernard Sumner quipped early in New Order‘s set at Radio City Music Hall. That was an understatement, probably the nicest joint the legendary Manchester band has ever played in NYC, the start of their brief, six-date March tour. It was also their first NYC show since releasing the very good Music Complete.

It was a very enjoyable set, though New Order didn’t play any vintage songs they didn’t play at the Williamsburg waterfront in 2013. Its hard to quibble with “Ceremony,” “Your Silent Face,” “Bizarre Love Triangle,” “True Faith,” and “The Perfect Kiss,” but tossing in maybe “Thieves Like Us” or something from their great 1989 album Technique (“Dream Attack” or even “Round and Round”?) would’ve been welcome.

I also know I’m probably in the minority here, but I’d be fine with zero Joy Division songs, two of which (“Atmosphere,” “Love Will Tear Us Apart”) made up the entirety of the encore. They were also going to play NO’s “Blue Monday” but the set got cut short for time.

The new material — they played about half of Music Complete, including the first-ever live performance of “Academic” — was all quite good, but the extended length of many of the songs (“Tutti Fruiti,” “People of the Highline”) probably could’ve been shortened in the live setting. The songs that tightrope between dance and rock (“Singularity,” “Academic”) fared better, but not sure why they didn’t work up “Nothing But a Fool,” one of the new album’s best songs.

On the plus side, the projections were really terrific, a marked improvement from the Williamsburg show, and the light show in general was excellent. The whole band seemed to be having fun, as did the audience. Me too. They sounded great. But I did want a new deep cut.

Opening the night was DJ Justin Strauss and a live performance by ZGRT, both of whom I missed. New Order will be on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday (3/14) and a full set of pictures from Radio City are here. In the meantime, New Order’s setlist from Radio City is below:

SETLIST: New Order @ Radio City Music Hall 3/10/2016
Singularity
Ceremony
Academic
Crystal
586
Restless
Your Silent Face
Tutti Frutti
People on the Highline
Bizarre Love Triangle
Waiting for the Siren’s Call
Plastic
The Perfect Kiss
True faith
Temptation

Encore:
Atmosphere
Love Will Tear Us Apart