NO: 30 JUN 1983 The Metro, Chicago IL
Setlist
Confusion, Chosen Time, The Village, Truth, (equipment issues), Leave Me Alone, (power outage), Your Silent Face (more issues), Denial, Age Of Consent, Ceremony, In A Lonely PlaceThe following quote referenced above is from (http://www.suntimes.com/output/derogatis/sho-sunday-metro18.html (link dead and not on The Wayback machine, sorry!)Also on Irvine Bhoy and Tarantula Pop (Jerry Narrows) Youtube accounts. Only Jerry credits Drew of The Power Of Independent Trucking for surfacing this originally back in July 2017, and publicly shared on 2017-08-05.
TPOIT writes:
"June 30, 1983 was the hottest day of the year to date in Chicago. The now-legendary venue Metro - then known as Cabaret Metro - had been open for roughly a year. While I was just an 11 year old kid cavorting on a beach across Lake Michigan from Chicago that day - or most likely asleep in the summer cottage, considering the time - New Order finally made their debut appearance in Chicago. Attendees say it was unbearably hot inside the Metro that night. And allegedly even hotter on the stage. That day, the high temperature reached near 100° F in Chicago and it had barely cooled as the evening went on. Making matters worse, the band took nearly two hours to get on stage after the opening act, which made an uncomfortable and stinky audience even more strident. The set starts out as your typical New Order set of the era would. Things seem OK, maybe a bit rowdier crowd than normal, until late in the fourth song “Truth” when the sequencer starts to act up. They launch straight into “Leave Me Alone” which ends uneventfully. Then, the power goes out (as you’d have it). A restless crowd begins complaining amongst itself, with audible complaints about sweat dripping into eyes, another mentioning rubbing ice all over their face, and vocalized thankfulness that they brought paper towels in. Random sequencer bleats punctuate the rumbling crowd, as the roadies and venue staff try to get the power sorted. Hooky mentions needing a shower. Eventually, “Your Silent Face” starts. It devolves into a unique and fascinating exposition on what a sequencer-using band does when the sequencers are failing mid song - Steve Morris jumps behind the drum kit far earlier than usual, and essentially drives the song to its skittering end as the sequencers never recover. I think this take is spectacular and I think you’ll agree. Barney then makes reference on stage to equipment and power problems, mentions the band’s just going to jam, and Steve then pounds out the drum riff for “Denial”. Instead of jamming, the band then finishes the set with four straight sequencer-free tracks, ending on the majestic “In A Lonely Place” well into the wee hours of the morning. There is no jamming, no acoustic “Blue Monday” despite the venue owner’s misremembered statements made over the years since. It’s possible of course at some point these did exist and were edited out from this tape upstream, but I doubt it and all other recollections of this gig fail to mention any acoustic “Blue Monday” performances. For the past 34 years, this set has been legendary in the New Order community due to the circumstances which befell it. And a ape was never known to exist, nor a setlist for that matter. With the 1980 Beach Club set, it was part of the Holy Grail pair of lost New Order sets. That changes today. The story of how this tape ultimately came to me is nearly as good as the story behind the gig, but to protect privacy I shall simply thank A. for this. I believe this is from a 1st generation dub of the master, and whomever the actual taper is remains a complete mystery."
New Order, 1983: "That was an incredible experience. Joy Division never made it to America because [vocalist] Ian Curtis killed himself on the eve of the tour. When New Order came, it was one of the hottest days in the city of Chicago's history. 'Blue Monday' had been a huge club hit-- it was like the change of music going from guitar-based punk to synthesizer-based New Wave or post-punk--but at that show, the power went down onstage because it was so hot in the club. Before it came back on they did a sort of 'New Order unplugged,' and it was the closest thing to Joy Division playing 'Blue Monday,' because they had to play it with just guitar and drums and none of the electronic gear."
- Joe Shanahan, owner of [Cabaret] Metro (from 'Long Live Rock', Chicago Sun-Times, May 18, 2003 by Jim Derogatis)
Here's my current attempt at a transcription, I seem to have lost my past ability to discern things, so please let me know if I missed or misrepresented anything!
Not much in the way of talking until Bernard asks for the foldback to be turned down at the end of Chosen Time. Believe Bernard makes a comment asking people to step back after The Village but he's hard to make out here. There's some taper chatter after Leave Me Alone, I can make out "I think they're all right", so figure who taped this weren't that familiar with the group, and then saying that he was rubbing ice all over his face after his lady friend was complaining about getting something in her eye, right before Hooky makes a hard-to-discern quip. Luckily she did bring a towel in!
Before the start of Denial Bernard asks for the crowd for any guesses as to what the next one will be...
After which you can hear Bernard mutter to himself and call out for a dbx "smoke machine" and complains about being fucking miserable and having to suffer more nights with the lot of ye, as Hooky is calling out to the stage crew, before the band kick into Age Of Consent.
Bernard makes a comment about the last song while complaining again about the heat onstage...and then talks about what the band would be playing next, which is Ceremony, which goes down a storm.
Then the band end with a downcast-sounding In A Lonely Place.
There are quite a few observations regarding what went on that night, only some of them bear any resemblance to reality, but which I've preserved to illustrate how much prior speculation was attached to this performance.
TJ adds:
"Sorry, missed ICB out from the middle of that rumored set.
Ceremony/Age of Consent/Dreams Never End/Cries and Whispers/Lonesome Tonight/Your Silent Face (where it all went wrong)/ICB/Sister Ray/a jam of sorts/She's Lost Control instrumental/Transmission instrumental.
Again, absolutely no idea of how accurate this is, this was included in a letter to me by a trader many years ago, he said he hadn't got a tape of the show but had attended it, and that is what they'd played. I discounted it as BS immediately, and hadn't thought of it again until it was mentioned below that other people had said they'd done some JD at this gig. Pretty spectacular if it's true - but no recording has ever been seen as far as I know."
TMK replies:
"Thanks much for the rumoured setlist. Very interesting, indeed. This is the first time to see such a setlist for this gig. I first heard this rumour about JD songs at this gig in 1984. The thing is - when my two friends reported that NO had played a number of JD songs, they sounded _disappointed_ about it (what was wrong with them?? :>) However, if others have also heard similar rumours from people who attended the 1983 Chicago gig, it is entirely possible that rare JD material was performed. I looked for a recording of this gig for several years in Chicago, to no avail. There was never even the slightest rumour that one existed. So, the big question is _where_ is the elusive 1983 Chicago recording - does one even exist?!"
Another note from TJ:
"All I know about it is that the sequencers failed halfway through the set, and unfortunately they'd played most of the guitar tracks in the early part of the set! What followed was a bit of improvisation. I had heard that they did a couple of JD instrumental versions as the last two songs(SLC/Transmission), but have not heard any proof of this. I did see a setlist posted somewhere once that included these, from somebody from Chicago. No guarantee of course that it is accurate or even bona-fide. From memory, it was Ceremony/Age of Consent/Dreams Never End/Cries and Whispers/Lonesome Tonight/Your Silent Face (where it all went wrong)/Sister Ray/a jam of sorts/She's Lost Control instrumental/Transmission instrumental. No idea if this is true."
Maybe the MB archives will tell all!"
RM's response: "I talked to Mark Buckwalter this morning...(re: picking up the 81 shows with Doubts Even Here played to master them to CD from his best tapes...)--he said NOPE. It's a rumor...the show was never taped. He and his closest sources were snapping up the US tapes immediately after they became listed by anyone, and from tapers, and friends of tapers--they all said no tape exists to our knowledge. sorry."
More interesting speculation from TJ:
"I think that if this set is genuine, we can make a few assumptions and a likely scenario - the sequencers and synths failed during Your Silent Face, and as they'd already played all the guitar-based songs they had intended to (and were only 20/23 mins into the set), they had to make a quick change, hence ICB (which was well-rehearsed), followed by a Sister Ray jam while the techs tried to fix the sequencers. As this failed, they were a bit stuck, so threw in a couple of crowd-pleasers. We'll never know unless we can either get a first-hand account or something from the band themselves."
and...
"Makes you wonder what had happened to Leave Me Alone and The Him though, both of which had been played on that tour and not in the previous two dates - you'd have thought they would be more likely candidates than a couple of JD instrumentals (unless they were feeling guilty!)."
Ceremony/Age of Consent/Dreams Never End/Cries and Whispers/Lonesome Tonight/Your Silent Face (where it all went wrong)/ICB/Sister Ray/a jam of sorts/She's Lost Control instrumental/Transmission instrumental.
Again, absolutely no idea of how accurate this is, this was included in a letter to me by a trader many years ago, he said he hadn't got a tape of the show but had attended it, and that is what they'd played. I discounted it as BS immediately, and hadn't thought of it again until it was mentioned below that other people had said they'd done some JD at this gig. Pretty spectacular if it's true - but no recording has ever been seen as far as I know."
TMK replies:
"Thanks much for the rumoured setlist. Very interesting, indeed. This is the first time to see such a setlist for this gig. I first heard this rumour about JD songs at this gig in 1984. The thing is - when my two friends reported that NO had played a number of JD songs, they sounded _disappointed_ about it (what was wrong with them?? :>) However, if others have also heard similar rumours from people who attended the 1983 Chicago gig, it is entirely possible that rare JD material was performed. I looked for a recording of this gig for several years in Chicago, to no avail. There was never even the slightest rumour that one existed. So, the big question is _where_ is the elusive 1983 Chicago recording - does one even exist?!"
Another note from TJ:
"All I know about it is that the sequencers failed halfway through the set, and unfortunately they'd played most of the guitar tracks in the early part of the set! What followed was a bit of improvisation. I had heard that they did a couple of JD instrumental versions as the last two songs(SLC/Transmission), but have not heard any proof of this. I did see a setlist posted somewhere once that included these, from somebody from Chicago. No guarantee of course that it is accurate or even bona-fide. From memory, it was Ceremony/Age of Consent/Dreams Never End/Cries and Whispers/Lonesome Tonight/Your Silent Face (where it all went wrong)/Sister Ray/a jam of sorts/She's Lost Control instrumental/Transmission instrumental. No idea if this is true."
Maybe the MB archives will tell all!"
RM's response: "I talked to Mark Buckwalter this morning...(re: picking up the 81 shows with Doubts Even Here played to master them to CD from his best tapes...)--he said NOPE. It's a rumor...the show was never taped. He and his closest sources were snapping up the US tapes immediately after they became listed by anyone, and from tapers, and friends of tapers--they all said no tape exists to our knowledge. sorry."
More interesting speculation from TJ:
"I think that if this set is genuine, we can make a few assumptions and a likely scenario - the sequencers and synths failed during Your Silent Face, and as they'd already played all the guitar-based songs they had intended to (and were only 20/23 mins into the set), they had to make a quick change, hence ICB (which was well-rehearsed), followed by a Sister Ray jam while the techs tried to fix the sequencers. As this failed, they were a bit stuck, so threw in a couple of crowd-pleasers. We'll never know unless we can either get a first-hand account or something from the band themselves."
and...
"Makes you wonder what had happened to Leave Me Alone and The Him though, both of which had been played on that tour and not in the previous two dates - you'd have thought they would be more likely candidates than a couple of JD instrumentals (unless they were feeling guilty!)."
Versions
AUD #1 - ANA1, surfaced July 2017, shared August 2017. Taper unknown, sourced by "A."
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