Quite a hectic day today, but I wanted to squeeze this in before tonight's New Order show drowned it out. I've been a New Order fan for about as long as I've been a music fan, starting with my BMG copy of Substance back in 9th grade, but - since I was away during the Republic tour - tonight will be the first time I've ever gotten the chance to see them. I am very excited.

My wait for the Junior Boys is better measured in months, not years, but I was still thrilled to see them for the first time last night at the Bowery Ballroom. I'd heard the JB's live show could fall flat and wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought they were great, very enjoyable as a live act. Since Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus didn't bring reinforcements on stage, they inevitably needed to use samples. Surprisingly, I didn't mind the fact that the beats were almost entirely preprogrammed; they're what I love the most about Last Exit, but they rely on a precision that could be tough to reproduce live. The JB's instead focused on the rest, and to great effect. "Teach Me How To Fight" had great interplay between the two on bass and guitar during an extended ending, and Greenspan's echoey guitar work carried "Under the Sun." I liked all three of the new songs they played, one in particular had a guitar sound straight out of The Unforgettable Fire. "Birthday" was the crowd favorite but "Bellona" was my highlight - funked up with a banging beat and way more soulful vocals. This was the best set of the night in my opinion. Perhaps they can be hit-or-miss live, but last night was all hits.

I enjoyed Four Tet's set as well, though it was far more noisy than expected. Live, Kieran Hebden uses his songs merely as springboards, letting them play straight for just seconds before getting to work with his two laptops and a mixer. It's an approach that yields increasing returns as you become more familiar with his music. When I saw him on the Rounds tour, I was early in the curve and good-sized chunks of his set felt like laptop wankery. This time, I loved how he turned set opener "Joy" into a few minutes of glitched out madness, or how he looped the "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" music box melody after about 30 seconds, threw a new beat under it, and then slowly mixed it into "She Moves She." The wankery can still be there, but he got me to look at his songs in a new light and I think that's exactly what I needed with Four Tet.

Caribou's headlining set focused on the new The Milk Of Human Kindness, which I still don't know too well but have really enjoyed so far. Their setup was the same as on the Up in Flames tour - two drum kits, keyboards, guitar, bass, and melodica, with the three of them moving around a decent amount. (Dan Snaith and crew wisely got rid of the silly animal masks, but unfortunately kept the prerecorded vocals.) The Krautrock pulse on many of their new songs worked well live, and the double drum attack kept their sound dynamic. Part of me wishes I had known the new album better, but I still enjoyed it considerably.

The Russian Futurists kicked things off with a set that was nice enough for a couple songs, but ultimately got pretty boring. Mathew Hart was joined by three others live, but they settled into the same groove a few too many times. I definitely think they have some potential with their poppy wall-of-synths sound, but some variety would go a long way.