PET SHOP BOYS AND NEW ORDER BROUGHT THE UNITY TOUR TO MSG

Two new wave and synth pop pioneers Pet Shop Boys and New Order brought their co-headlining Unity Tour to Madison Square Garden after being postponed many times over the last 2 and a half years with pandemic delays, as it was originally scheduled to take place way back in September of 2020, at a time when people hoped the whole COVID thing would blow over quickly, but of course it did not. We had actually purchased the tickets for this event nearly 3 years ago, so the anxious anticipation for what was sure to be one crazy dance party was a long grueling haul, but it turned out to be well worth the wait, and it was very much be the dance party that shook off those remaining quarantine blues. Along the way they had added another local date at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, and that came a few nights before with New Order headlining, but this time it was Pet Shop Boys turn to take top billing. Both bands came out at the beginning of the 80’s and had major influences on both the artistic direction of the alternative rock and dance scenes, and they also topped of the pop charts many times with radio play and music video hits. They also obviously influenced each other as well, and even had some collaborations in the past, which made these two the perfect combination for a majorly cool party tour, and they even brought along famed producer, artist, and remixer Paul Oakenfold for DJ duties before both of their sets, and he helped really keep they dancing spirit going throughout the night.

New Order is a band that arose from the ashes of their previous outfit, the post punk innovators Joy Division, who disbanded after their lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide in 1980. That group had a overwhelmingly dark but strangely danceable rock sound had elements of their future electronic obsessions, but after guitarist (and now frontman) Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, drummer Stephen Morris, along with keyboardist Gillian Gilbert took up as a new band, there was a feeling that they needed to get out on the dance floor and groove away their collective grief and trauma of losing Curtis at such a young age. Hit after hit they managed to prove themselves creatively and commercially as musical masters in their own right through the 80’s, but they had separated through much off the 90’s, but they did have a flurry of activity in the early 2000’s, but in 2007 Peter Hook left in a huge public spat with the rest of the band. Since 2011 though, the band has been going strong, with the additions of Tom Chapman on bass and Phil Cunningham on guitar, both from Bernard Summer’s transitory band called Bad Lieutenant that grooved away from 2008 to 2011, before he merged them with New Order. With a great video show projected behind them at MSG, they came out swinging with classics like “Regret,” “Age of Consent,” “Ceremony”and “Your Silent Face.” They did sandwich in their newest single “Be a Rebel” in the middle of their set, as well as an older deep cut “Subculture” before continuing with the hits like “Bizarre Love Triangle,” “Vanishing Point,” “True Faith,” “Blue Monday” and “Temptation” before leaving the stage, only to come out for a rare opener encore to play a couple classic Joy Division covers, the manic dance supreme song “Transmission” and, of course, one of the best songs ever made and a person favorite “Love Will Tear Us Apart” that they did as an homage to Ian Curtis. I had heard some criticism as of late that New Order have lost their edge since Hook’s departure and are no longer the great live band they had once been, but I saw and heard absolutely no evidence of this during this stunner of a set, as they kept the energy high and had me joyously singing out loud throughout.

New Order

The Pet Shop Boys are a London synth-pop duo that formed a bit after New Order in 1981, but clearly both were influenced by and inspired by each other throughout their careers. Unlike their Manchester based contemporaries, Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe have never really broken up, or taken very long off from playing together either, although they have both spent a lot of time being very involved in writing, producing, and remixing classic tracks for lots of other artists that include Madonna, Lady GaGa, Tina Turner, David Bowie, Blur, Elton John, The Killers, Dusty Springfield, Yoko Ono, and many, many others. They may have made a lot of magic behind the scenes, but it is really amazing to see these two can do up when they take the lead. Their set started with just the two of them playing underneath a stage set of a couple lonely street lights playing some older classics like “Suburbia,” “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money),” and “Rent.” When they moved into their cover of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” that slices in bits of Frankie Valli’s “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” they brought out some additional members and as well as a ridiculously huge stage show, and their set continued with other amazing covers like Stephen Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind” that they originally made for Liza Minnelli, the stunning “You Were Always on My Mind” a song first recorded by Brenda Lee which they did for an Elvis tribute album. They also had more hits to crank out like “It’s a Sin” and the big encore of “West End Girls”, before ironically ending with “Being Boring” which they are certainly anything but. These two veteran dance bands turned out to be the perfect pairing, and I hope they bring this party back around again for more debauchery.