A Dilemma

Of all the bands I like, there are three I hold in higher esteem than the rest. Pulp, New Order and Pearl Jam. Pulp were the first band I ever really obsessed over and loved. New Order saved my life. Pearl Jam mean more to me than just about anything in this world, and probably always will. I would jump at the chance to see any of them. I did with Pulp. I paid upwards of £300 to go to a wet field for 4 days to see one band. That turned out to be the best experience of my life though, so it was worth it. A day with Pearl Jam would probably eclipse it, but who knows when that'll happen.

The dilemma in question in the title however is New Order related. It's not really a dilemma, more a massive bout of doubt and uncertainty. The band announced today that they're playing some dates this year. There's one in Glasgow for good measure: http://www.nme.com/news/new-order/61719

Excellent, no? Well...

We have Barney, Steve, Gillian, the guy who replaced Gillian when she had kids and... someone. I'm not actually sure who the replacement bass player is. I don't know if it's the same guy who was in Bad Lieutenant with Barney. Either way, it's not really fully New Order. But that's not my worry. While Peter Hook is by no means a technically gifted musician, that's where his and the bands charm comes from. None of them were/are really any good. Barney can't sing or play the guitar. Steve isn't human so he doesn't count. Hooky is the more "frontman-ish" out of all of them, but there's no great complexity to the majority of his bass-lines, regardless of how catchy they may be. Despite all of this, will it be a loss? Will this lead to a diminished live New Order, the one I've grown to love through 240p youtube videos and the Live in Glasgow DVD (hell if the same people are going to that then it'll be good shit - and I'll probably be the youngest one there)?



Look at it. I get that it was the first gig in a while (5 years, I think). I get that it was a song that wasn't played much, if at all. And that 1963's a song which doesn't exactly lend itself well to movement and energy. But there's just something really depressing about that video. Is this what I would get if I went to see New Order in May? More importantly, would I even care?

I don't feel the same way about the possiblity of this gig as I did for Pulp. I feel a strange aversion to it, whereas Pulp was preceeded with almost complete indifference from the moment I got my tickets until the moment they walked out on the stage. I'm worried that if I do go and see New Order that my opinion of them and their place in my heart will be forever tainted because of one night, undoing everything else that came before it.


This picture, displaying Yahtzee Croshaw's theory on game anticpation sums it up well. I should add, I'm going to this gig. Harry wants to go, so I'm in. I will be there, regardless of any misgivings I currently have. But which of the four above squares will I be best described by, at 11pm on Saturday the 5th of May? I'll let you know when that time comes. In the meantime, I will listen to the greatest band in history. Who produced both the best song and best album in history. And leave you with this, one of the greatest live performances in history (and I don't know how Steve managed to play this at their dates last year, but I'm all for hearing it again):