POST-PUNK’S NEW ORDER FAILS TO DELIVER GOODS

If the members of New Order are out to demystify their image as the inheritors of the Joy Division legacy, they did a good job of it Thursday night at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium--maybe too good.

In their shorts, T-shirts and tank-tops, the members of New Order looked more like four kids who’d wandered over to the Civic from the nearby beach than standard-bearers for Manchester, England’s moody post-punk dance music.

With its sweeping, melancholy currents and danceable beats, that sound became one of the most influential of the early ‘80s, and New Order advanced it nicely on this year’s “Low Life” album, retaining the style’s textural strengths while asserting the group’s own vocal and songwriting character.

But Thursday’s show was disappointingly drab. At its best, the group powered out a driving, hypnotic attack, but overall it never really hit its stride. Obscured in shadows and slatted lighting, the four musicians were hampered by an erratic sound mix that swallowed up Bernard Sumner’s impassioned vocals and had the synthesized rhythm tracks overwhelming the live instrumentation.

New Order’s live shortcomings were most apparent on “Love Vigilantes,” one of the brightest cuts on “Low Life” and on any album this year. Thursday, it was pale and draggy, without the vocal assertiveness and brisk guitar riffing that spark the record.

New Order, long an underground favorite, had some momentum going they signed to a major American label (Quest/Warner Bros.) and moved up bigger venues on this tour (they also were scheduled to play Irvine Meadows on Friday). They’ll have to do better than they did at Santa Monica if they want to keep it going.