Anyone here going to the Hollywood Bowl gig next week?
I'll be there.
I saw them perform there on their only other visit in 1993. Easily their worst show I'd attended.
I had just seen them 2 days before at the Mountain View gig, which was a disappointing, by-the-numbers performance. I was still looking forward to the Hollywood show, as it was a higher profile location in a venue I'd not been to (before or since). We know the bands' early reputation for hit or miss shows, but this was different. They truly were just going through the motions and clearly wanted it to be over. The
WaterRatGigography lists
Fine Time, but my recollection is that the setlist was a carbon copy of the Mountain View gig. One difference was the omission of the Elektric Music intro music they walked on stage to. In Hollywood, it was just straight into a lumbering
Ruined in a Day with no delay. By the end of the show, Bernard appeared numb and bored, and Hooky was addressing the crowd in drunken slurs.
In Mountain View, I had approached Rob Gretton as I'd spotted him by the mixing desk before the gig. I told him he was doing a great job and he gave me a big cigar-chomping smile back. After the Hollywood debacle, I noticed him climbing the steps up to the back of the venue as the crowd filtered out. This time I left him alone as, for the life of me, I could not think of one positive or clever thing to say.
When today, I hear or read "it's not New Order without Hooky!", I think of this and the way it could have ended. As sad as it is, if half of what Hooky and Barney say is true, we're lucky we had them together as long as we did. And there certainly wouldn't be New Order today
with Hooky.
But hey, enough of my yackin'! The '98-'06 shows were far better than those 1993 ones. And despite what anyone tries to tell you, the post-Hooky gigs are at least as good.
Pre-gig meetup?
