Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
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Path: utzoo!linus!cv
From: cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Groups I like.
Message-ID: <481@linus.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 16:26:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: linus.481
Posted: Mon Aug  5 16:26:09 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Aug-85 03:49:46 EDT
References: <8508@watarts.UUCP>
Reply-To: cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Lines: 44

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In article <8508@watarts.UUCP> jharman@watarts.UUCP (James Harman) writes:
>
>
>Joy Division - makes New Order look like a bunch of disco
>	wimp sell-outs, which they are.
>

Jimmy, I know you are suffering still, even though Ian Curtis died for our
sins, but New Order aren't disco, wimps, or sell-outs.   Joy Division is
still my number one ever, but I saw New Order last Friday and they brought
the house down.  The Opera House in Boston, that is.  As a local critic
recently pointed out, they aren't Joy Division and don't pretend to be:
even though the pain they still feel over Curtis is evident, they haven't
tried to cash in on his death.

As for selling out, on the strength of their Boston show, I believe they
are deliberately trying to sabotage their own popularity.  They choose to
control their relationship with the audience, feeling, as Robert Fripp
does, that most performer-audience transactions are essentially vampiric
in nature, with the crowd doing the feeding ...   New Order came out,
fairly stomped through a 55 minute set, and chose to leave sans encores.
The crowd (typical Boston fans:  turn your back on them at your peril) felt
cheated and reacted poorly to say the least.  There were several fights,
police running around like fools, the crowd streaming back *in* to the
theater 10 minutes after the house lights came up, to see what was going
on, etc.  New Order was long gone.  Did they give this crowd what it
wanted?  Yes:  on *their* terms and for 55 minutes.  Enraging a crowd can
hardly be termed selling out.  It was a statement of sorts, wholly
appropriate.

Their music is far subtler than Joy Division:  where Ian Curtis's pain and
recriminations were painted in bold strokes, New Order veils these
feelings.  Oblique interpretations are needed.  Not for headbangers.  I
can see how their "Low-life" could be interpreted as eight pointers to
wimpdom, but it bears repeated listening.  Besides, I saw the show, and
there is no mistaking what they mean when you see them live.


Chris J. Valas         {decvax,utzoo,philabs,security,allegra,genrad}!linus!cv
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