Peter Hook and the Metropolitan Orchestra: Joy Division Orchestrated
Opera House Concert Hall, August 2
Reviewed by George Palathingal
3.5 stars
You can consider this show, essentially, from two points of view.
You can shake your head and sigh at Peter Hook again going back to the well of his first and most celebrated band, Joy Division – the Manchester, England, outfit whose existence came to an impossibly sad and abrupt end when singer Ian Curtis hanged himself in 1980.
Or you can embrace Hook’s attempt to continue celebrating their legacy, as the bassist and singer has been doing so in various incarnations since 2010, and the chance to hear most of the band’s soundtrack-for-a-generation songs played live again.
The twist this time around is the backing of an orchestra, born of a collaboration with Hook’s fellow Mancunian conductor Tim Crooks to breathe fresh life into the Joy Division catalogue.
So as Crooks pull the strings, Sydney’s Metropolitan Orchestra actually plays them, and the brass and the rest, alongside Hook and his usual bandmates playing the instruments familiar to the recordings (bass, guitar, drums, keyboards).
Hook takes turns on vocals with two other singers: Mica Miller adds a welcome feminine take on her tunes while Bastien Marshal brings a fine (and straight-faced) approximation of both Curtis’s dolorous baritone and his simple but distinctive look on his.
It feels as though they all peak too early with a sublime Atmosphere, where the orchestra powerfully accentuates both its beauty and melancholy, but they go on to hit other heights; even though Hook struggles hitting some of Dead Souls’ high notes, it starts out as an almost unrecognisably sunny version of a beloved downbeat song, and it sounds terrific.
There are more misfires than there need to be: in a well-intentioned but forgettable new song (Higher Higher Higher Love), an unsuccessful mash-up (of Captain & Tennille’s Love Will Keep Us Together with Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart) and oldies that probably shouldn’t have been on the setlist in the first place (Atrocity Exhibition, Digital), orchestra or not.
But by the time Hook and friends hit their straps with the triumphant triumvirate of Transmission, Ceremony and the inevitable proper take on Love Will Tear Us Apart to send us home on a high, it feels like a successful exercise on the whole.
Source: Read Full Article