Peter Hook and The Light (photo: Patric Carver)

When I am at the Fillmore, I always like to spend a little time during the show in The Introvert Self-Exclusion Zone — I mean, the poster room.

There’s a lot of history on the walls, posters representing a fraction of the acts that have graced the Fillmore’s famous stage. It’s fun to soak up a little nostalgia while the performance in the main room is still washing over me.

However, on the November 8 Peter Hook and the Light show, I didn’t feel the pull to be surrounded by my old framed friends in the other room. The nostalgia was playing out heavy on the main stage itself. Edging up on a decade of playing New Order and Joy Division songs with the Light, Hook and company made New Order’s Technique and Republic come alive. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: New Order isn’t New Order without Peter Hook, but, amazingly, Peter Hook can manage to be New Order without New Order.

There was no opening act, but the Light played three sets, starting off with “All the Way.” Hook’s vocals have improved vastly in the time since I first started seeing him play with The Light, but guitarist and Monaco band member David Potts took the lead with this one with Hooky chiming in only on the line, You’ve got love technique.” It was a good start to the show.

The highlight of the first set and possibly the show was Technique’s “Love Less.” Lovely and haunting as ever, the Light’s version gave the song a heftier weight that made the punching drive of the song some spirit.

Technique and Republic are definitely not the gems of New Order’s discography, but you’ve got to respect Hook’s librarian-like dedication to working through whole volumes of his former outfit’s catalog. I’m thankful that he doesn’t just remove them from the shelf and hand them off to the audience. He dusts them off, reads them with spirit and drama, captivating us all over again.