By Ritzy Sparkles

Date / Venue: Friday February 27th, The Studio, Auckland

My name is Ritzy and I was conflicted fan girl. Do I see 'Hooky' sans New Order? Yes please.

Playing an entire album live has always been a risky concept, trading on that wish to see your most totally favourite bands ever play live just one more time? Ok? Then when you do it's never going to live up to what to had in your head. Oh but there were moments.

The set list was a given - Joy Division set (yussss), followed by Brotherhood & Low Life. Could we just say epic choice on Kraftwerk as the opening music? The Joy Division set was spot on - I'd picked up an audiobook copy of Unknown Pleasures read by Peter Hook in December last year and with the history and his voice so familiar (thanks to Auckland traffic - you suck) the songs took on extra resonance. No it wasn't Joy Division but it was enough.

After a short break The New Order Period began. 'Lets's Go' sounded amazing and the synths were warming up.'Thieves like Us' took my breath away and as he sung "I've lived my life on alcohol," it was definitely a personal moment for him. As the albums progressed, many tracks made the cut live such as 'Bizarre Love Triangle', 'Love Vigilantes', Sooner Than You Think', but others felt surplus.

The musicianship was tight and awesome, (we wanted more bass Hooky, not enough) but unfortunately the vocals sounded flat and messy a lot of the time, sorry they just did.

The encore choice of 'Confusion' was a personal favorite for me and topped off a great gig. I may have been thwarted trying to see New Order live but I got Hooky. It's enough.

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