There are several Rock and Roll acts that cross international boundaries and traverse time and still draw emotion from people. Queen, Journey, Joy Division, etc. The trick in performing these songs that move people is to keep that feeling alive that they felt listening to the album, or going to the live show years ago. Joy Division as a live show is arguably a tough one to pull off, even with a founding member present, as the only really and truly irreplaceable member is dead. Also, one could fall into the pitfall of parody, or worse yet turn each show into a death cult shrine. All of this was going through my mind the week before going to the Peter Hook and the Light show at the House of Blues in Dallas. Flash forward to the show. Hooky came onstage and opened with Elegia, playing the bass while sitting on a stool. "He looks tired" my wife said. And he did. There followed a brief New Order set. Folks around me sang to the lyrics, and the energy began to ramp up. After a brief intermission, I heard Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk begin to play. Ian Curtis's chosen track to warm up the audience. At that moment, I realized the genius of what Hooky had done. It was as if Joy Division were on tour, about to take the stage and play all of Unknown Pleasures and Closer. My palms began to sweat. Hooky an the light come out and lead into Disorder. Pandemonium! Drums, bassline and I hear my wife shout: "Ohhh Wow"! Another Joy Division fan was born right then and there. Energy surged upwards, Hooky looking less tired now. Into Day of the Lords. Heaviest and darkest rock and roll song ever written. Hands down. He was fighting with pure evil, and just wrote it out and sang it. He meant every word. Lived what he wrote and didn't survive. His lyrics were not a show. But turned into a concert, there is a power there that was like a runaway power turbine in a nuclear plant, headed for meltdown. There was a point during "She's lost control" that Hooky was standing across the stage from the mic and let out a scream. You cold hear him un-amplified over the song. He was no longer tired. Hooky was clearly at the controls of the nuke plant and had planned the melt down all along. Admittedly I am not a huge fan of Closer. However, performed live gave it a different feel, much like the Amsterdam Paridiso versions of the songs but with Hooky at the Mic. The big surprise for me was the end of Closer, 24 Hours, The Eternal and Decades. They just build and build until Decades, which was an absolute banger. Perhaps even more spine tingling that Ceremony during the Encore. As a three song suicide note, as a reactor meltdown, and the earth stops spinning and you step off, with Hooky singing the chorus: "Where have they been"? It was an absolute revelation, and now the end of Closer makes sense to me. It is truly a towering monument of an album. And live, it is sublime. Short break and the light come out and Hooky leads into Ceremony, energy even higher, dude next to me is a dervish. Transmission has everyone screaming lyrics. Love Will Tear Us Apart with the audience participating. The last three songs alone were worth the admission price. If he was really tired, Hooky had rallied and had more energy than anyone in the audience. As my wife said afterwards: "I don't think any rock band could top the power of that encore". If you hate Joy Division, you should go and see what all the fuss is about. If you like Joy Division, you should go because you will hate yourself later for not going. If you love Joy Division, you should go because this is the cancelled 1980 tour from Kraftwerk intro to Love Will Tear Us Apart, albeit minus Ian Curtis, but with a respectful and reverent craftsmanship benefitting from an extra 40 years of polish on the performance.