By Steven Burgess
Former Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter (“Hooky”) Hook is currently on tour with his band Peter Hook and The Light for their 2024 Substance tour. The Substance tour is inspired by the records of the same name put out by Joy Division and New Order, with Hooky on lead vocals. The band played a 3-hour set on September 13th at Houston’s famed House of Blues.
When I arrived at the venue, the crowd was filled with a variety of people: a mix of parents taking their kids to their first concert, day-one fans of New Order and Joy Division, and young adults who had discovered records like Unknown Pleasures and Power Corruption & Lies through decades of a cult following. With no opener, Hooky got on stage with The Light and started their set with New Order tracks. The New Order set was filled with many fun and upbeat songs like “Thieves Like Us” and “Regret.” It’s pretty remarkable to hear a song live like “Blue Monday” and hear how similar it sounds to the studio version. Hooky is incredibly expressive on stage, moving around and playing a variety of bass solos in fun poses. My favorite moments from the set were when everyone sang the hook to “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “State of the Nation” or when everyone began to dance in unison to “True Faith.”
Once the New Order set had ended, there was a brief intermission between sets. When the band returned to perform their Joy Division set, the energy in the room went from a happy, fun dance party to a foreboding, intense environment. This set consisted of darker themes and louder instrumentation over Hooky’s haunting vocal delivery. Hooky surprised everyone by playing “Disorder," the night really started, and hell broke loose (in the best way possible). A mosh pit formed in the center of the GA standing area as people began to push into each other - reminiscent of a very toned-down version of Hooky’s accounts of crowds from Joy Division sets. The night went on with the crowd becoming rowdier than ever as Hooky would deliver wailing vocals over songs like “Leaders of Men” and “Digital” while the band performed at a range of high-speed to hauntingly slow tempos. What mainly stuck out to me about this set was how this mesh of adrenaline-induced rock and melodic dark ballads worked so perfectly. Standout moments during this set were when the band delivered a wall of sound on songs such as “Transmission” and “Shadowplay” with an insurmountable amount of energy and when Hooky began to sing over the Light’s haunting rendition of “Atmosphere” filled with beautiful instrumentation. Peter Hook and the Light stuck their landing with their final song, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” ending the night with a collective chant of arguably Joy Division’s most iconic hook.
Hooky proves himself on this tour that he is a vocal chameleon. His energy as a frontman and his versatility of vocal deliveries on both pop and post-punk front is remarkable, given he had never been lead vocals for either band. Being a part of a crowd with such a diverse age group, it was surreal to see how this crowd of adults transformed back into raging teenagers. The length of the show and the band’s ability to reciprocate the crowd's energy at all times was nothing less than impressive. By the end of the night, everyone had gone home with a little more youth than before entering the doors of the House of Blues.
Check out my interview with Hooky at https://ktru.org/peter-hook-interview/ for more on Peter Hook.