Review: New Order at Brisbane Riverstage, March 11, 2025

Not all their fans were happy, but New Order took to the Brisbane Riverstage on Tuesday night just as the city’s flood emergency was receding.

Bernard Sumner out front of New Order in Brisbane. Picture: Warren Jackson/Facebook

This wasn’t a Green Day, nor was it a Blue Tuesday.

This was ’80s synth rock darlings New Order taking the (River) stage on their first Australian tour in five years, amid the social media mutterings of those fans unlucky enough to still be caught up in the region’s flood emergency.

The inner Brisbane venue boasted a capacity crowd on Tuesday night despite the inconvenience, all seeming to appreciate the distraction from current hardships.

And with the ’80s-style laser lighting and video screen effects, punters were teleported back to when New Order were at the peak of their powers.

At one point frontman Bernard Sumner complained about the heat.

“We’re not used to it, being from Manchester where it pisses down with rain all the time,” he said.

“So we know how you’re feeling with a typhoon, it’s shit isn’t it.

“Well, that’s nothing, it’s like every other week in Manchester.”

Sumner otherwise let the music do the talking, save for when he observed the brand of stage lights shared their name with the producer of their song State of the Nation (for the record it was Robe/John Robie).

That tune was a reminder of how the more things change the more things stay the same, as imagery from the band’s heyday was intercut with themes from conspiracies and inflation to tariffs and isolationism.

Conspicuous in his absence was estranged founding bassist Peter Hook, the man responsible for so many of the band’s trademark riffs, and who has actually been performing New Order albums in their entirety with his new outfit The Light (including son Jack Bates).

But current bassist Tom Chapman acquitted himself admirably, as did electro-drummer/guitarist Phil Cunningham, keyboardist Gillian Gilbert and drummer Stephen Morris.

Then, of course, there was Sumner and his distinctive vocals, undimmed by the decades.

He played a mean guitar himself, and even broke out the melodica for Your Silent Face.

Meanwhile, the generous guitar riffs of bangers such as Player in the League reminded us they were more than just a synth band.

New Order have obviously never forgotten their roots, beginning and ending the show with covers from their earliest incarnation Joy Division, led by the ill-fated Ian Curtis, who was honoured in an elaborate big-screen video.

Some might have been annoyed by the omission of tunes such as Shellshock, Regret and Krafty, but there were the obligatory crowd-pleasers such as Bizarre Love Triangle (with extended intro in the finest ’80s 12” tradition) and the triple treat of True Faith, Blue Monday and Temptation to bring the main set home.

New Order play the Sydney Opera House Forecourt on Friday and Saturday.

Setlist: Transmission, Crystal, Ceremony, Age of Consent, Isolation, Love Less, Player in the League, Your Silent Face, State of the Nation, Be a Rebel, Sub-Culture, Bizarre Love Triangle, Vanishing Point, Plastic, True Faith, Blue Monday, Temptation. Encore: Atmosphere, Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Bernard Sumner plays the melodica at New Order's Brisbane show. Picture: Warren Jackson/Facebook