Concert review: Peter Hook and The Light | 09.07.24, Riviera Theatre (Chicago, IL) (with photo gallery)

Photo of Peter Hook by Laura Jerele

I could seriously wax poetic non-nonstop about the importance and the impact of Peter Hook’s musical career. His career spans over four decades and genres from post punk, to pop, to electronica and beyond. Peter Hook is a nonstop touring machine and draws huge, sold-out crowds despite not having a ‘latest single’ or ‘recent release’ thrown into some heavy PR rotation. His vast musical catalog is his very own heavy public relations rotation that never seems to end as new, young fans are constantly discovering his history. Hook’s music has either heavily influenced or provided the soundtrack of your life being a member of two of the most groundbreaking and innovative bands, Joy Division and New Order.

His most recent tour did not make a stop in St. Louis so I made the trek to Chicago to experience an evening with Peter Hook and The Light where he performed a nearly three-hour show of both New Order and Joy Division Substance songs. Hooky is almost larger than life. His enigmatic charm is a very real thing. He’s calm and casual, not afraid to take the stage in cargo shorts and combat boots, and yet he does so with a certain English swagger that only he can possess. He’s a consummate frontman, knows all eyes are on him, and is well comfortable in those boots and that low-slung bass. Anyone who thinks a bass player should slink to the back of the stage and not be a frontman has obviously never seen Hooky perform!

The two sets (again, a nearly three-hour performance!) began with songs from the New Order Substance catalog. Nothing about this seemed like it would be a run-of-the-mill greatest hits set, the music felt larger than life and vibrant. Two of my all-time personal favorite New Order tracks, “Regret” (from the early ’90s) and “Ceremony” (which was the last song Joy Division wrote together and became pivotal and transitional as the first New Order song) started the night. I knew I had three songs to photograph, which ended up being four as he was not on stage for the intro, instrumental opening song “Murder,” and then I was out to join the sold-out crowd to sing and dance. From there, it was hit after hit of huge New Order classics like “Blue Monday,” “True Faith,” “Temptation,” and “Bizarre Love Triangle” which truly defined pop music in the eighties. If you’ve lived under a rock and don’t know these songs directly, you actually do know them because of the influence they’ve had on every pop and electronic artist, producer, and engineer to come along behind them. The Riviera was dancing and bouncing with as much energy as if it were a 1980s dance club with Hook commanding the audience whether he was singing, motioning his arms like he was conducting the crowd, or thundering away on the bass. The catalog of New Order has a brightness and complexity to it, and there were no corners cut here. It was a perfectly performed set. 

There was a brief intermission to break the sets and Hook returned to end the night with 15 beloved Joy Division songs from Substance. I loved that we began the night with the music of New Order and ended the night diving into the music of Hook’s early career, Joy Division. I think most people would expect sets like these to be played in some sort of chronological fashion, but Hook knows this is as close to Joy Division as fans will ever get. So, as amazing as the New Order set was, there is still an entire audience held in anticipation of hearing this music be played live. Hooky was on fire for this set, singing each song as if he made some sort of eternal promise to bandmate and singer Ian Curtis that he would do so to carry on his legacy. He plays these songs with absolute conviction, you can tell that this music is truly a part of him and his soul. He doesn’t try to bring new life into these songs and play with their arrangements, he and The Light bring them perfectly to life and keep them true to form.

The beginning of the set brought “Warsaw,” “Digital,” and “Disorder” to life with a heavy sound of bass lines that felt perfectly Joy Division. The crowd knew these songs well, sang every word, danced and screamed a lot despite their ages—which varied wildly! These songs are damn near sacred to a great many people—myself included, as they’ve been my favorite band for nearly my whole life, so it was amazing to get truly lost in this show. “She’s Lost Control,” “Shadowplay,” “Dead Souls,” which was lovingly dedicated to Ian…I was in heaven with this setlist. Hook ended the night with “Atmosphere” and, of course, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” complete with a massive sing along with the entire venue where people sang, cried, sang some more and screamed louder at the end of the show than I’ve heard in a very long time. Hooky delivered a perfect night, especially for all those people in the crowd that were moved to elation and emotion because it was such a bucket list of a concert. | Laura Jerele