Peter Hook's 'Unknown Pleasures' tour continues (played Webster Hall & with a fan in Boston)
Peter Hook @ the Philly show on 12/2/10 (King Taco)
As a tour repeatedly billed as “Peter Hook Presents Unknown Pleasures,” it wholly delivered on the premise.
The New Order track-free set featured note-nailing impressions of Joy Division’s “No Love Lost,” “Leaders of Men,” “Glass,” and “Digital,” before covering their most famous LP from front to back. All the pleasures you’d expect of Pleasures were present — the punchy, sumptuous intro of “New Dawn Fades,” guitars searing during “Shadowplay,” the jagged moves of “She’s Lost Control.” More fleshed out than the record, even.
Hook couldn’t quite mimic Curtis’ authoritative vocals, but his calls were crisp and competently matched each song’s tone. He particularly savored the big repeated yells that close so many Joy Division songs. They show his animated side just waiting to break out.
“Transmission” was feisty, too, which is to be expected, but then the band filled “Love Will Tear Us Apart” with an ecstatic thunder the original never touched.
Hook warmly said, “Thank you and good night. God bless you all,” before the whole gang left for good, removing any doubt that he shouldn’t be taking this material on. Appearances from Sumner and Morris would have been nice, yes, but no cash-in would have been so devoted to its source material. Hook didn’t try to be Curtis, which was the best path he could take. -[Spin]
That glowing review (?!?) comes from the 12/1 Peter Hook & The Light show at 9:30 Club in DC, part of the same Unknown Pleasures tour that hit Webster Hall two days later (12/3), and Boston the night after that. Was it actually that good? The eight-date tour continues in Portland tonight (12/9), and ends at Mezzanine in San Francisco on 12/10.
As Vice points out in a post entitled “SOMEONE STOP PETER HOOK” (a more popular opinion than SPIN’s), a crowd member handled the vocals on “Ceremony” in Boston. Even worse, according to “Fuc 51” on Twitter, “Hook announced he had been paid $10,000″ by the guy. We haven’t fact checked the money transaction, but you can watch a video of the number, along with some videos from Webster Hall, below…
Peter Hook plays “Ceremony” with a Fan in Boston
Transmission – Peter Hook’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ live at Webster Hall
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division – Peter Hook – Webster Hall
PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT – 2010 TOUR DATES
December 1 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
December 2 Philadelphia, PA Voyeur
December 3 New York, NY Webster Hall
December 4 Boston, MA Royale Nightclub
December 6 Chicago, IL Double Door
December 7 Seattle, WA Showbox At The Market
December 9 Portland, OR Doug Fir
December 10 San Francisco, CA Mezzanine
