Live music galleries: New Order [2013]

(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Artist: New Order
When: August 4th, 2013
Where: Mountain stage, Osheaga, Parc Jean Drapeau, Montréal
Context: A week ago, the organizers of Montreal’s Osheaga music and arts festival announced that much like last year, this year’s event would not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was hardly a surprise and yet, though I hadn’t attended in many years, I felt a bit sad at the news. Every year, I get excited around lineup announcement time and I peruse the acts, weighing whether it is worthwhile to attend and whether I think I might be able to convince friends to go with. The last time I was able to achieve such a feat was in 2013 and though the lineup was favourable, it was mostly because my friends Mark, Tim, and I were all celebrating a certain landmark birthday. The headliner on the final night was Mumford and Sons but we were way more excited to see New Order, who were slated to perform just beforehand. Original keyboardist Gillian Gilbert had recently rejoined the group but Peter Hook had departed and was touring with his own band, performing landmark New Order and Joy Division albums in full. New Order, meanwhile, was touring in support of their latest album, “Lost sirens”, but the set list that night featured none of its songs and instead, read like a greatest hits album, much like that of The Cure’s set, two nights earlier. And then, just when we thought it was over, the band blew our mind’s further by performing three classic Joy Division tracks, going well over their allotted set time and cutting into Mumford’s set. The indie kids were pissed but we were in heaven. Afterwards, the headliners felt pedestrian by comparison and we were tired of drinking macro brewed beer so we ducked out of the final night early and went off to a local pub.
Point of reference song: “Crystal”