Live Review: Peter Hook & The Light

Five years after playing a similar show at the Metro Theatre, Peter Hook returned with his band The Light, upscaling the full album performances of Unknown Pleasures and Closer in the more distinguished and recently renovated Enmore Theatre. That transition from club to theatre made for a grander, more dramatic and ultimately more rewarding live experience for both albums, now 40+ years old.

Before that though, the audience was treated to a six-song set of New Order to whet their appetite and build the atmosphere and celebratory mood. Hook knows how to treat both the hardcore trainspotter fans and those more au fait with the hits. Beginning with In A Lonely Place, the austere b-side to New Order’s debut single Ceremony, it was a perfect choice in that it was originally written as Joy Division, with Ian Curtis, a tipping point between the two bands. It was a low-key beginning that segued into Cries and Whispers, a b-side to early single Everything’s Gone Green.

Then the magic happened with a giant leap forward to, Regret. The sound palette brightened, and the stark, oppressive sounds became day-glo and surged skyward. Crystal tipped the scales into the 21st century before Hook and his impressive yet anonymous (in terms of personality and stagecraft) band returned to one of New Order’s finest moments in True Faith, the Sydney crowd finding their collective singing voice. An intermission, and then it was time for that iconic debut album, with one of the most recognisable album covers that were adorning plenty of t-shirts in the audience. It’s always an interesting experience hearing albums performed in full, as you know what’s coming next. In a sense, that removal of anticipation pushes the focus more strongly onto the rendering of the song. The real revelation was the spirited approach to these songs, taking them out of the dark, dank and claustrophobic world of Martin Hannett’s production and to a place akin to how they would have sounded on UK stages in the late 1970s.

Hook is no shrinking violet, he knows how to work the stage and crowd. Prowling, shuffling and swaggering across the boards. Throwing dramatic shapes with his impossibly low-slung bass. His instrument is selectively used, and it’s clear that at some point while developing his solo/band project, he realised that in order to do justice to the vocals, he had to have an additional bass player on stage to provide most of the low end. Hook picks his own moments well though, with iconic opening bass lines such as She’s Lost Control reminding us of his unique use of melody on the bass guitar. Shadowplay was another highlight, the thrilling nexus of its spiralling guitar motif, the driving bass and the persistent tumbling drum perfectly balanced between mood and slashing power.

After The Stooges-styled rush of Interzone and its haunting sonic opposite, I Remember Nothing, fans could have happily gone home satiated and fully rewarded. After the briefest of breaks, the band returned for Closer, the album that found Joy Division deconstructing punk even further. Hearing Isolation anew, with its declamatory synth lines, it was clear at that point that the stylistic jump to New Order was already germinating. Hook proved time and time again, across the two-and-a-half-hour show, that he has become the spirit and holder of the flame for these songs. There’s little rockist decontextualisation - there’s authenticity and commitment to the form and function of the songs. Colony still sounds wonky and jagged, Heart And Soul is a dark and shadowy funk song par excellence, and it’s hard to hear and watch Hooky perform the elegiac The Eternal with funereal thoughts coming to mind.

Vocally, Hook convinced from the outset. Yes, he’s shaped his voice to, at times, be a dead ringer for Ian Curtis’, but at the same time, it also feels authentically his. There wasn’t a sniff of karaoke about the performance at any point. A four-song encore lightened the mood and brought the show to a towering peak with Warsaw, Ceremony, a pummelling Transmission, and Love Will Tear Us Apart, dedicated to Hook’s new Australian daughter-in-law. It’s a song that sits atop the band’s legacy, a perfect blend of power, passion and majestic melody and the Enmore audience responded in kind, a chorus of voices singing rousingly. As the set ended, Hooky tore off his shirt and offered it to the fans, providing a perfect analogy for the wholehearted commitment and integrity with which he continues to bring Joy Division’s music to fans, young and old.