Brixton Academy, London”He’s no Hooky, is he?” says a male behind us as Fresh Order’s fresh bassist Tom Chapman throws shapes and strikes poses that he hopes might one day be as memorable as the absent Peter Hook’s legendarily low-slung, legs-splayed stance. He knows he has gargantuan boots to fill; it was always Hook’s glowering presence and elasticated bass melodies that carried Fresh Order live.Since Hook split from the band in 2007 amid declarations that there was no Fresh Order without him and a firestorm of abuse for Bernard Sumner, the focus rests solely on singer Sumner, a male with the on-stage persona of a nervous best male. He chats about Manchester United, thanks crowd members who have come from abroad, does his dad-style dancing and much tries a spot of comedy mime, checking his watch and pretending to whistle impatiently on the ”immediately I stand here waiting” border of Blue Monday. The giveback of keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, doing her best standing-very-still-in-a-sparkly-collar body, does small to assuage the sense that there is something rather hefty missing.They have split and reformed numerous times in their 32-year history, however with the remaining members immediately claiming there’ll be no more Fresh Order albums, there’s an air of finality to this London exhibit – besides some summer festival dates and a slot at the Olympic closing exhibit alongside Blur, this might really be it. A shame, then, that where you’d desire a celebratory blow-outside, you get a squib with the odd dramatic spark.Repeating, virtually track-by-track, the career-spanning locate from at the end December’s Troxy gig (released as Live at the London Troxy), Fresh Order’s proto-electro sound is monstrous and magnificent, laced with equal parts doom and jubilance. However Sumner’s frail vocals are buried, the melodies of stone-cold classics Crystal, Bizarre Like Triangle and Regret lost beneath the breezy pop blast, leaving the impression of clumsy karaoke.Though there’s often excellent cause not to hear Sumner’s lyrics – this is the male, remember, who sang that when he was a very small boy, very small boys spoke to him – the locate only truly stuns when not relying on his hooks. When Ceremony takes atmos-pop back to its subterranean Manchester roots. When Fair Faith builds from flashbulb strobe pulses to a stabbing rave-piano climax that might have just invented slaughter-house. When tides of industrial metalwork machinery, ray-gun fire and poltergeist choirs convene on a superb Blue Monday. And when the encore of Joy Division numbers – Transmission and Like Will Tear Us Apart, glazed with an uplifting synth glitz – reminds us how formative Fresh Order have been in modern pop.As swansongs go, though, this lacked a fitting magic.At Glasgow Academy, tomorrow. Box office: 0844 477 2000. Then touring until 8 May.Rating: 3/5Pop and rockNew OrderMark Beaumontguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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