New Order made me jump

As the radio DJ would say later that night, “some things are worth waiting for…and this is one of them.” I must agree. While I’m not a hardcore New Order fan like the woman is, I enjoy their music and respect their contributions to music. Frankly, New Order pretty much changed music as the world new it, but I won’t go into that now. If you want those details, post and ask the lady.

Anyway, New Order makes few trips the States as they are an English band, and when she spotted their tour dates and cities, she had tickets quicker than I can down a can of Pepsi. Tickets safely reserved and on their way, the next step was booking a hotel for the one night stand. The venue was in “Uptown” Chicago, which is north of the city, but we stayed at the hotel we had stayed in on a previous vacation that was right on the Mile.

We arrived in Chicago to find it freakin’ cold. We knew it wasn’t going to be hot, but this was 40 degrees and breezy. Of course, I didn’t pack for winter so the first order of business was to buy a long-sleeved shirt. That accomplished, we checked in, dawned my Moog shirt and her England soccer jersey and we hopped on the redline train for a 20-minute ride north.

The train stopped right in front of the venue, the Aragon Ballroom, which was awesome because that meant we didn’t have to walk far at all. Uptown Chicago isn’t exactly known for its smiling suburban white folk, if you know what I mean.

Crossing the street and heading towards the doors we saw what appeared to be a line waiting for something about a block away, everyone leaning against a well muraled wall. After closer inspection and seeing a long line of black leather, All-stars, and Goth-cut hair, we knew we had the right line.

We got a pretty good spot in line getting there about 90-minutes before the doors opened. Waiting the fans of New Order was a interesting experience, not because they were odd or weird, but because they weren’t the type of crowd you would expect at a rock show. As the line grew and once we got inside I found this was perhaps the most employable audience I’ve ever seen. I’d say the mean age was probably 31-years-old. All that being said, it was nice to be able to stand in line and have a somewhat adult and civilized conversation about the band and just each others stories in general.

One of the first people we met was a guy from Akron, funny enough. His name was Brice and was there all alone. He seemed a little frazzled, but he said that he worked third shift and then drove from Akron to Chicago, I think a little frizzle was in order. Unfortunately, his friend bailed at the last minute so he had to drive alone and also got stuck with an extra ticket. Despite his gift of gab, his heart was seemingly bigger than the entire line put together because he gave away his extra ticket!

Two fans were walking down the line asking if anyone had extra tickets with intensions to buy them. Brice yelled at them and said he had an extra ticket. The other guy asked how much and Brice just handed it to him. The other guy’s face was priceless, like he had just been handed the Holy Grail. He offered to pay again, but Brice didn’t accept so the guy ran off in glee - too bad for his friend because there were two of them and they still needed an extra ticket. So 30 years from now Brice will in some father’s story about when he went to see New Order in Chicago and some stranger gave him a ticket.

When the doors opened we were ushered in by ladies in one line and guys in the other. The standard weapons pat down was in full swing. The guys got checked top to bottom, shoes included. Apparently the ladies didn’t get checked very well as Jen managed to get by with a camera that was not allowed. Go figure.

The Aragon was at one time a posh ballroom where the flops and dandies wasted the night away drinking martinis and doing the Charleston. My first reaction was a skating rink, but what have you. It was just a big open floor with slim balconies on either side - standing room only for this one.

The people packed in slowly but we were nestled right up the front gate so close that I can tell you the security guard had brown eyes. The opening band, The Assassins, went on at 8:15p and played pretty well. They got many a golf clap but far from excitement when they were done, of course everyone was there to see New Order in the blue moon American tour.

At 8:45p New Order hit the stage to more yells and cheers that you can imagine. Now many readers may hear “New Order” and go “who?” Five years ago I would have been in that crowd as well. Let me tell you that you have heard a New Order song even if you didn’t know it was them. Their songs have been covered by countless bands, so even if it wasn’t actually New Order singing, it was their song. The song that most everyone would recognize is Blue Monday with others like Bizarre Love Triangle and True Faith coming in close behind. All of which hit the top of the charts in the U.S. in the 1980s. Of course, in England it was another story as New Order is seemingly more of a national treasure.

Their prime having been in the 80s, all of these men were way past their pimping age and it showed. Then again, the intense drugs and alcohol they went through certainly helped them along.

New Order’s set was pretty good and was a good cross section of many of their albums. A few songs they played were a surprise while others were conspicuously absent, like Age of Consent, which was also a chart topper and fan favorite.

I’ve been listening to New Order for several years now and honestly enjoy their music. It’s a mix of rock and techno, however back in the day they got lumped in as part of the new wave genre. I’m more of a fan of their more techo-ish and dance songs than their others and was looking forward to many of the songs I have heard in my car daily during my morning commute.

More at this concert than any other I’ve been too, the live music really hit me hard. It was so much better than any album songs I can’t even begin to explain. Some bands suck live, some bands sound the same live as they do on the record, New Order is one that needs to be experience live.

As many bands do live, they change up their songs a bit both lyrically and musically and New Order was no different. Yet when some bands do it they just mess it all up, New Order did it oh so right. As they started into songs like Crystal and the endless Temptation,I found myself jumping around and “dancing” like someone that was having a good time. Meanwhile, next to me the lady wept as she saw her rock idols on stage (finally) in all their glory.

Unfortunately, as Lorkin so accurately wrote about, the show was filled to the brim with many concertsapiens. One large man especially was drunk of his rocker and pushed his way to the front from the back spilling his beer everywhere. He had no interest in the band or music whatsoever it seemed, it just wanted to grope the girl he was with and be obnoxious to everyone else. I really felt sorry for his lackie; a real tiny guy (it was like Laurel and Hardy) that was brining up the rear. He really got the tar beat out of him from the people the big man had just pushed around. No one in that group enjoyed on minute of the show.

There were also countless mobile phone camera takers, including Blackberries, Sidekicks, and every other fancy phone. Keep in mind this was a crowd of doctors, lawyers, professors, and everything in between - far from the poor end of the spectrum. I only saw one child there with his parents and the guy with the mohawk that ended up jamming next to me was a nice guy. In fact, I think I met the nicest most considerate stranger I’ve ever met. He was behind me and smoking. His smoke wasn’t bothering me, but he tapped my shoulder and asked if it was bothering me. I stood for a moment astounded that he even asked. I replied that it wasn’t bothering me and thanked him for asking. So person number nine to add the concertsapien list is The Rare Nice Guy.

Following the 90-minutes of quality rock, we slowly made our way out of the Aragon and back across the street to the train heading back to the downtown Chicago. Initially we had been a little worried about being in North Chicago at midnight, but we quickly realized that we were with 4000 other people that had no idea where they were or how to get to where they needed to go, so we were in good company.

We crashed quickly and before we knew it we were at O’Hare waiting for the flight home. All things considered, it was one of the most flawless and worth while trips we’ve made. Nothing wasted and everything gained.