The Peter Hook & the Light show earlier this month at Royale in Boston was one of our favorites of the year. Touring the New Order records Low-Life and Brotherhood, it was great hearing Hooky’s bass lines on tracks like “Sub-Culture,” “The Perfect Kiss,” and “Bizarre Love Triangle” in a live setting, and like the rest of this current North American tour, fans that arrived early were treated to a selection of Joy Division songs by the Light in lieu of an opening act. It was a treat all around.
This past Friday night at the Metro in Chicago, however, things were raised to a new level, as Billy Corgan and Jeff Schroeder of the city’s own Smashing Pumpkins joined the Light on stage for a grand finale: Joy Division’s 1980 classic, “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
Yowza.
The legendary track — in our opinion one of the finest songs of the 20th century — has been covered a million times over, with most singers attempting a respectful facsimile of late vocalist Ian Curtis‘ unmistakable baritone. But Corgan here stayed in his vocal style, and it gives the song a nice freshness.
TLDR: Holy fucking shit it’s Billy Corgan singing Joy Division with Hooky on bass.
Check the video below, and the obligatory post-show tweet afterwards. Jells.
[embedvideo id=”OaS58GCKlz0″ website=”youtube”]
Top night @MetroChicago! Great night & thx 2 good friends @Billy & Jeff from @SmashingPumpkin who joined us on stage! pic.twitter.com/aHoE3nOmep
— Peter Hook (@peter_hook1) November 15, 2014