I live in the UK on a long-term basis now. And customarily make a periodic return to Japan, roughly once a year, to be reunited with my family members, friends and relatives. Then, why not fix this year’s return period to accommodate New Order’s tour dates over there? Moreover, given last year’s Cardiff that was to be my twentieth New Order show only to be cancelled at the last minute, why not bestow the honour to Osaka, my home city, instead? There you go.
Zepp Namba, the 2,530 capacity venue (2,090 for floor standing and 440 for balcony seating) in Osaka city centre was completely sold-out. No extra tickets were issued at the box office. I didn’t have a ticket, standing outside with a notice, “One ticket needed”, in my hand. After about three quarter of an hour, three young men approached me, saying that one friend pulled out and if I would buy it. Of course, I went for it.
The ticket was for the front floor area. When we entered together, a large portion was already occupied by the punters who had come earlier. I secured a spot at a distance half way from the stage, but it was still the closest experience I had seen New Order onstage along with the Bluedot Festival 2019. How refreshing it was for me to catch them in a small, intimate theatre-sized space after some years of outdoor festivals and a big arena! For your information, Ariake Arena, the venue for the Tokyo show, is of the capacity 12,000 and all seating.
On the stage, Factory legend Mark Reeder was DJ’ing. Back in the 80s I loved You Hurt Me and Pretenders Of Love, two tracks he released with Shark Vegas, a New Order soundalike.
At 7:08 pm, lights out and Tristan und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod, now a familiar sound and visual introduction started. The room was full of the anticipation of the fans who had been deprived of New Order live for umpteen years. This is their fourth show in the city that used to be dubbed as the “Manchester in the East” in late 19th century for its heavy industrialization, after 1985, 87 and 2012 — I attended all of them, and another one would be added now.
The show started, somewhat surprisingly for me, with Transmission. A refreshing kick-off if a minor change. I checked setlist.fm afterwords and realized they did the same at the Corona Capital festival, the most recent show immediately prior to Osaka, though.
An eruption of applause was showered over the intro to Ceremony, the song’s first ever live performance in Osaka, rather unbelievably. If the group’s previous Osaka appearance as the headliners on the sub-outdoor stage at Summer Sonic Osaka 2012 had not been heavily truncated due to the adverse weather, we would have been treated with their debut single among the then fixed set-list of the day thirteen years ago; some unfinished business done.
“I will sing the first verse in Japanese. But I come from Manchester. I will try anyway so please bear with me,” commented Barney and then the band launched into Krafty, a rarely played number these days. In all fairness, despite his modesty and unsureness he sang it very well and deserves the credit for his effort.
“I wrote this in Tokyo and finished it in Los Angeles” was Barney’s introduction to tonight’s biggest surprise, State Of The Nation — the first live exposure of the song in 38 years. Hardly a top tune in the group’s catalogue, it was a delight nonetheless for the hardcore among the audience to be served with a different order of the day.
So New Order treated us to two songs with Japanese connection, which has given the show some sense of uniqueness and specialness. Good for them.
The other selections of the songs are more or less identical to what they have done for some years, except that it was an almost Music Complete-free set (only Plastic was chosen from the album). Another modern, slick New Order show with some rough edges which, ironically, gave a glimpse into those past times long way back when they were vastly unpredictable, a unit whose imperfection was part of their irresistible charm. All in all, I enjoyed the show. Some minor technical hitches notwithstanding, Barney was in a good mood all the way and his language and gesture felt like a genuine appreciation of the group’s return to Osaka and the way the fans responded to them.
The show finished at nine sharp. While Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Laurence (one of Barney’s choices of 10 Favorite Numbers published in the now long gone Q or Vox magazine, with a comment, “Fuckin’ beautiful tune” — another Japanese homage here?) was sending off the audience members, I snapped the setlist held by one fan who obtained it from the sound man.
Then I spotted someone carrying an A4 sheet of paper that did not look like the standard setlist. I asked him to let me have a look. Six (five to be exact) titles of songs were printed on it in capitals: SIRENS, RESTLESS, SHAKE IT UP, DECADES, ACADEMIC and, once again, SIRENS. I assumed they were the alternative choices of songs to perform, and wondered if some of them might be played at the Tokyo show. Alas, as it turned out, the latest entry on setlist.fm informs New Order played exactly the same set in Tokyo tonight.
Edited by user 03 March 2025 05:07:22(UTC)
| Reason: Misspellings
