Tonight, swamp weather replaces Los Angeles county’s Mediterranean climate with high humidity and brutal heat. Couple this with the mind-numbing, grill-to-bumper rush hour traffic across the I-5 southbound with a broken air conditioner, and time will find a new reason to grind to a slower pace than before. All this while the radio details the Los Angeles Rams football team opening their title defense across town against the Buffalo Bills, a game where the home team is dealt a blowout loss.
The car inches onward and comes to a stop; my head turns to the right, and I catch the face of a clean-shaven, heavyset guy sitting in his car, looking in my direction. We spot each other; the guy waves his hand toward the sea of red lights in front of us and gives the thumbs-down sign. Then he disappears, taking advantage of an opening to change lanes and move two cars ahead. I wonder if his air conditioning is smoked too.
A new text message arrives from my photographer friend; What’s your ETA? Meet at the bar? “About to get on the 110 from the 5, should park in 15 minutes,” I respond via voice text. Traffic moves faster once we’re past the Stadium Way exit, and I’m on the I-110 freeway in no time. Hill St. exit into Chinatown, left on College St., and a right on Broadway St., two miles south to The Theatre at Ace Hotel. Driving down Broadway, a sliver of the makeup comprising DTLA’s melting pot of class and racial backgrounds is on display: young urban professionals emerging from or entering nearby lofts, DoorDash e-bike couriers running parallel to traffic to their destinations, Hispanic mothers walking with their children carrying grocery bags, an elderly Asian couple occupying the bench of a bus stop, and working stiff pedestrian traffic going to or returning from their shifts among the ever-growing homeless crowd.
The car is left in a lot off Hill St; the stench of urine and trash permeates in the hot, wet air as I leave the lot grounds and head toward Olympic Blvd. Seeing a man pushing his belongings in a cart across the intersection reinforces how surreal yet desensitizing the environment of Downtown Los Angeles has become. Hell, most of LA. It’s easy for someone to come across rows of tents and makeshift housing from making a wrong turn from one of the area’s more fashionable districts—unfiltered class discrepancy in plain sight to the public. Seeing the man cross the street reminds me of a memorable line Jaz Coleman told me at a hotel on nearby Los Angeles St in 2019 during an interview when he spotted a disheveled homeless man walking near the gates of the hotel courtyard:
“I find it concerning that representatives of your country’s government call themselves a compassionate nation when the living conditions I’ve seen around here and in Skid Row say different,” Jaz states.
I wonder if Peter Hook would share the same sentiment.
At 6:50 p.m., the twilight deepens above the cloudy, grey early evening skyline as I walk back on Broadway St. At this time, the faint smell of smoke from the northern Lake Castaic fires replaces the aroma of body fluid and hot garbage. The Theatre at Ace Hotel is dead ahead with 30 or so black shirts lined up outside under the old United Artist Theatre marquee sporting Peter Hook’s name in red lettering. Tonight is the night one of the English post-punk pioneer’s Southland stay as Peter Hook & The Light return to the city since their 2018 gig at The Wiltern.
There, Peter Hook & The Light powered their way through an enthralling performance of both Substance albums from his highly influential former groups, the storied Joy Division, and New Order. Tonight, his set is focused less (much less) on the latter and more on the former as both the proto-industrial sounding Closer and cold, wet steel feel of the Unknown Pleasures albums will be played in their entirety.
Walking closer to The Theatre marquee, the line of people donning black shirts come more into focus, and a range of millennial and Generation X attendees are seen wearing a slew of Joy Division designs ranging from the logo to album covers. Scarce but present are also light-colored New Order shirts. This observation proves that Hook’s work has achieved the coveted cross-generational appeal. When your band’s music has already been covered by the likes of genre heavyweights Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Grace Jones, and The Cure, along with cuts from established artists of the new millennium like LCD Soundsystem, Iron & Wine, Xiu Xiu, Year of No Light, and responsible for launching Orgy’s career, it’s a sure bet your legacy carries lasting, sustainable impact down the line.
Decompression time at the bar. Brendon triple-checks his camera’s settings. Last minute note review and gig details. Walking into The Theatre around 7:30 p.m. is a breeze. Within the 95-year-old confines, which mixes theatre history with the impressive restoration of the building’s old Spanish-gothic architecture, we’re greeted with another line at the entrance for people lining up to purchase merchandise. An assortment of shirts, sweatshirts, and tour posters are shown, each with minimalist design and aesthetic in typography and photography portrayed.
We glance over the merch offerings, but the sound of distorted bass and drums echoes from the concert hall, all indication the local opener El Ten Eleven is in progress with their set. Walking into the darkened orchestra area towards the front, the duo ripped through a distortion and pedal effects pop-infused post-punk instrumental set. El Ten Elven aren’t new to Peter Hook & The Light’s audience as the quintet took the duo on tour multiple times in the past and are on date six of eight with Hooky for this run. Their set gave a good tone of things to come—intense performance and graceful delivery from bassist Kristian Dunn and tight rhythm throughout from drummer Tim Fogerty. The only downside is their slot time—hard to get heads in the door for a set that starts before full-on nighttime. All in all, El Ten Eleven put on a solid show.
El Ten Eleven’s set concludes ten minutes after eight with Dunn hyping the audience to get ready for their lord and savior due up next. The lights go up as the theatre’s orchestra seating area fills up to near capacity over the next 20 minutes before the lights dim again. Droning noise erupts from the PA and is quickly overtaken by the excited audience applause as Peter Hook & The Light emerge from stage left and take their positions. The somber keys introduction of “Elegia” begins. The band goes through a selective New Order catalog of six songs for the next 30 minutes. Even with a tour focusing on Ian Curtis, ignoring a significant part of one’s body of work that’s been entangled in since recently resolved legal discussions would be a mighty elephant in the room not addressed. However, tonight isn’t about revisiting a time in his life riddled with fallouts and disputes; all the Joy Division shirts seen outside on fans in line buying merchandise and congregating in the lobby area tell us this.
The New Order set concludes with the theatre becoming a dance party, as most orchestra area audience arise out of their seats and burn calories dancing in the rows to “True Faith” and the Republic leadoff “Regret.” Raucous applause fills the room upon the set’s ending, and the band leave the stage for a short intermission. There are no speeches throughout Peter’s set aside from a music journalist talking about the impact Joy Division had on his work as he introduces the part of the show that highlight’s this tour. Peter Hook & The Light return after ten minutes and immediately launch into the opening drums, familiar bass line, and ringing guitar riff of “Disorder.”
Unknown Pleasures have begun, and barely anyone is sitting down during the next 40 minutes. Sound issues were a bit of an issue as the mix sounded muddy, but the group persevered. Their rendition of “Day of The Lords” takes out the grim, downcast feel as the extra bass work from Mike Squires gives the song an extra punch, and “Interzone” sounded sped up from the original version to where you’d feel this could have been a Warsaw track at some point.
Upon the conclusion of atmospheric “I Remember Nothing,” the band breaks again for another ten-minute intermission before the Closer set. A longer, more brooding record than Unknown Pleasures, Hook leaves the challenges for the end with how different the song structures and tempos feel to the former LP. The challenge doesn’t wear on him, though, as he and The Light again bring the audience to nearly 44 minutes of standing as drummer Paul Kehoe kicks off the set with the drum roll to “Atrocity Exhibit.” Everyone will have their highlight of the set, but watching Peter Hook perform “A Means To An End” was special given the vague nature of the lyrics, which allows the song to be construed in both a negative and positive context, almost to let the listener contrive their own story or situation from Ian Curtis’ words. This writing skill of allowing different interpretations is what made his lyrics cryptic and reinforces a quote Brendon stated:“I saw Joy Division as the bell in the darkness of the post-punk and goth genres. That world is bleak, and Ian’s lyrics were the opposite; “don’t give” up was his message.”
Hook looks both confident and assertive on stage in a low-key way and moves about in ways that he’s not lacking mobility but isn’t making any case for attracting attention towards himself on stage. He’s down-to-earth and humble with his stage presence. The only words spoken aside from song which rang the loudest are his farewell to the audience with “Thank You, Good Night and God Bless. For a guy who told Katherine Yeske Taylor during an interview for The Big Takeover last March that “the thought of touring seemed very daunting,” that mentality is not present.” The encore brings out the most joy to the audience with the most well-known Joy Division cuts with Peter practically having the whole Theatre singing the chorus for “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
Worth repeating, the cross-generational appeal is on full display for Peter Hook & The Light. Night two should be enjoyable; swamp climate withstanding.
Follow the news about Peter Hook & The Light through their official website, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
Words by Matthew Hutchison. Photos by Brendon Crigler Photography.
