Glaswegians The Shore prove the popular warm up 4-piece band with a regional vocal delivery at times sounding like a Bono-wannabe and an early The Who/The Verve/The LA's with their riffing guitars. The Shores provided plenty of warm-as-toast moments with anthemic rock tunes aimed at dispelling the blues - stand-out tracks such as 'Something To Die For' sounding like a Verve epic and the U2-tinged 'Rest Of Your Life' with a husky voice and ladles of melody.
Lights down and opening with the Serge Leone soundtrack to 'Once Upon A Time In The West', New Order take to the stage like they're the Hacienda outlaws saddling-up for a party and are gonna nab your women. With the familiar line-up of a paunchy-Barney, Peter Hook, Steven Morris and Phil Cunningham here for a second night of Glaswegian warmth and revelry, it's been 5 years since the band last played in Glasgow. Opening with the euphoric 'Crystal' from 'Get Ready', it's the few bars that are needed for the audience to erupt and go mental, a rousing opening with firm control and Hook patrolling the front-stage like St. Peter at the pearly gates - angular, low slung bass and flashes of the eye-balls.
With poppy turns and 'Regret' given the raucous makeover with a jumping audience and the feelgood factor of the singalong "...I would like a place I could call my own/ have a conversation on the telephone...", then switching back to the early days with the blessed, anthemic 'Ceremony' sounding better than the 45 ever did - "...Oh, I'll bring them down, no mercy shown/ Heaven knows it's got to be this time...watching forever...", the glee is bountiful. 'Siren's Call' brings the matey 'Who's Joe?' and the punchy, existential 'Krafty' keeping the guitars going strong, then the delightful mellow number 'Your Silent Face' from 'Power, Corruption and Lies' provides a reprieve with Barney on melodica - daintily handled and the audience lapping it up.
Barney signals a shift in gear that involves the move into dance numbers with some kitsch appeal, dizzying synth chords and no need for guitar. 'Guilt Is A Useless Emotion' sees Barney set to doing his agitated-swan twirl, spinning into 'Bizarre Love Triangle' - earnest in delivery with "...every time I see you falling/ I get down on my knees and pray..." and dropping to the knees. "We've got a crowd killer", Barney signals,, "it's called 'Temptation'", and proves a top tune with the mighty singalongs "...Oh, you've got green eyes/ Oh, you've got blue eyes/ Oh, you've got grey eyes..." and the night is bursting at the seams under the weight of the anthems. It's a night filled with lots of gorgeous lines - of clean synth lines and firm bass lines - 'The Perfect Kiss' adding to New Order's métier with 1985's party tune "...I said let's go out and have some fun/
I know, you know, we believe in a land of love...", and who could have seen what it would beget - the tune segueing into the one we've all come to hear - 'Blue Monday' - the DJ's fail safe, the sop to the masses and the anthem for a generation; yet, somehow, pleasing as it was to hear live, 'Blue Monday' lacked the crispness of the programming that is the result of the studio and came across as lackadaisical, like a 'Blue Monday' jam with Peter Hook bashing on drum-pads and the band lacking the tightness of sonic discourse that has seen this track work so many dancefloors. New Order take a wee pause and there's a little stage re-shuffling then Hook announcing "Thank you for making life worth living..." and N.O. lurching into the elegiac 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' proving euphoric, which embraces just about all of their history and sets the night to a close.
It may have been awash with the classic and iconic tunes that have formed the backbone to their prolonged success, but hey, there was no 'True Faith' to be found. New Order managed to work the crowd and give a rousing performance. How central the place was to N.O.'s affections is open to debate - the feeling being that N.O. probably prefer a larger audience by stadium or festival nowadays. Nevertheless, elation was had, and beer could be found flying into the air - a joy to hear tracks live that have documented the passing of the years.
