Transmission - The Sound Of Joy Division Live Review

LIVE REVIEW: TRANSMISSION - THE SOUND OF JOY DIVISION

OCTOBER THE 19TH 2013 - THE GRAND CLITHEROE

Consensus often dictates that tribute acts are not worth the blink of the eye that they appear in; simply a half arsed attempt to recreate a myriad of sounds that a band once played.

Transmission - The Sound Of Joy Division were anything but half arsed.

Throughout the hour that the stage was graced by an aura of reminiscence, Transmission worked their way through a catalogue of Warsaw and Joy Division songs; the songs that came to define the misspent youths of many people in the room.

Coming on stage at approximately half past nine they were plainly dressed and looked nothing like the band in question.

However it was this that reaffirmed the importance of this tribute band in my eyes; this wasn't a mimicery of the genius of Joy Division but it was in fact a medium through which we could try and remember and evoke the feelings and times that they captured; it was indeed a tribute.

Stood before the audience was a band that was very aware of both themselves and what they were trying to replicate for us, which showed through the music.

Each song, whether it was the hallowed haunting tones of 'Decades' or the upbeat mask hiding the questions of existence in 'Disordrer', was played perfectly with each note replicating the same mistakes that Ian, Bernard, Hooky and Stephen turned into misguided masterpieces.

The vocals were as deep as a cello; the guitar riffs as sharp as a razor; the drums were flowing with the feeling to dance; and the bass was hung low, entwining itself perfectly with the lead singers voice

Yet the crowd itself seemed to be an immovable mass who's hearts and souls still lingered in a haze of confusion and alienation back in 1980 with Ian.

For the four or five of us at the front who were dancing this did not matter though; we were lost in the moment or possibly lost to intoxication judging by the state of the dad dancing.

The venue itself well reflected the attitude and atmosphere that the band and the music they played generated, with the lighting rigged to flicker between intense beams of light and bleak darkness, whilst the contrasts between the close knit dancing of some aspects of the audience and the spacious isolation of other aspects struck a chord with all the feelings and emotions that the songs described.

This was everything you could expect from a Joy Division tribute act and whilst it did not quite stand true to the sweaty, intense and chaotic gigs that my generation lusts and dreams of when thinking of joy division, Transmission still achieved what they intended and stand as quite the testament to the sound of Joy Division.

8.5/10