Originally published at: New Order posted a killer 1985 live performance of "The Perfect Kiss" | Boing Boing
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Greatest song ever by the greatest band ever!
Also, it has the perfect amount of cowbell.
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I used to do what I called an impersonation of Depeche Mode/New Order, etc… and it was constituted of my pressing a button on a keyboard, boredly dancing, and looking off-stage left and yelling “can I get a pizza” in a faux British accent.
Mind you, this was coming from a place of love. 
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Low Life was the first album I bought on that new fangled compact disc format
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Man, I wish Hooky and the rest would kiss (no pun intended) and make up one of these days.
“New Order” isn’t really New Order without his bass, and while I enjoy his “I’m in my own cover band” thing with the Light, its not the same as the real thing either.
Also, at risk of being a contrarian: while this is a pretty great live version, I think the version in the video (which was filmed live in their rehearsal space) is probably the definitive one:
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Absolutely. And directed by Jonathan Demme.
No more no less.
Was at the first live performance of Blue Monday at the Crystal Ballroom Melbourne 1982. A year before Factory records released the song. Memory a bit hazy but the machine kick drum hitting me in the chest, the 200 odd crowd going nuts and the bands less than energetic (not in a bad way) ‘method performance’ was amazing! Calm in the face of chaos.
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While on the topic of early New Order, I love this early performance of Blue Monday. Despite being on TotP, they had the nerve/bravery to actually play it live.
It’s kind of a train wreck; at one point a wrong sample is used to comic effect and Bernard can barely get through his verse without giggling afterwards. Peter looks about as annoyed as you’d expect. Despite the flaws, it’s still really charming.
(Also what’s with the keyboards being practically Gillian’s knees? I saw this a lot during the early 80s from contemporaries as well.)
I saw New Order twice last year (funny story how that came to pass…). While their set lists were all over the place for their shows, I was fortunate enough to see Perfect Kiss at their Seattle show.
Here it is for comparison:
Seeing New Order (along with co-headliner Pet Shop Boys) was an amazing and unforgettable experience. New Order may not be all that technically great as a live band (especially when sharing a bill with PSB who is technically flawless every single time), but they seem to give it their all every show and have a ton of energy and heart which makes it really easy to ignore the many flubs during performances.
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Ignoring for the moment my personal opinion that this isn’t New Order (since Peter Hook isn’t there), I will say that I find it hard to listen to some of the live versions of late, since they’ve started changing the key of some of this songs, this one included.
Maybe its just me, but changing the key can really disturb the whole tenor (music pun noticed, but not intended) of the song.
Meh, I’m not really a subscriber to this but of course everybody’s entitled to their opinion. Peter Hook is the only one of the original four that’s no longer with the group (and his replacement does an amazing job). I can think of plenty of worse examples of bands continuing after members have left to the point where no original members remain.
New Order has long been defined by change from the moment they were formed from the ashes of Joy Division. I can’t deny Peter Hook’s importance to the band but I won’t say there’s no New Order without him.
This is interesting. I’ll need to listen more closely because I didn’t notice this at all and I’m usually pretty sensitive to this.
Interestingly, I think these two points are precisely why I don’t see the current lineup as New Order.
- As soon as Ian was gone, Joy Division was over. They all were clear that Joy Division was the four of them. And they’d agreed that if any of them left, the band as Joy Division was over. And they made good on that. Apparently initially that was the plan with New Order as well.
- I think Peter Hook was critical to the sound of New Order, and without him, they can’t really make new music that has the same feel. “Music Complete” could’ve been made by just about anyone.
Yes, I’m a grumpy old fanboy. 
We’ll just have to agree to disagree.
Aside from retaining the punk sensibilities of Joy Division, New Order was a complete musical departure.
But even with that, every album is different without a really defined sound aside from shared motifs around crafting electronic pop music with a little bit of a rock edge. Hooky’s departure was a huge disappointment, but they are still putting out great music and it still retains the same sonic feel. (Plenty of stinkers, too but as much as I love NO, they have always been wildly inconsistent when it comes to quality.)
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