Pride and Joy Division

As the final seconds of 2008 ticked away on Clematis Street, New Year's Eve partygoers celebrated the holiday not with the sentimental strains of "Auld Lang Syne" but with the heartbreaking harmonies of "Atmosphere," Joy Division's slow-burning masterpiece of desperate baritone, swirling atmospherics and tribal drumming. The stunning rendition of the timeless track concluded the lengthy set of 3 One G, a Joy Division tribute band based in Winter Haven. It played more than an hour's worth of material from the short-lived but endlessly influential Manchester post-punk act, from popular sing-alongs such as "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "She's Lost Control" to obscure numbers dating back to Joy Division's days under the Warsaw moniker.

And it did so to an estimated crowd of 5,000 people—a big deal, considering most of 3 One G's shows have been small, intimate gatherings of Joy Division die-hards, including Gainesville house-party gigs in front of 20 people.

"Surprisingly, it being a New Year's Eve show, there were a lot of Joy Division fans," says co-founder and bass player Danny Scott, 36, adding that South Florida shows have always produced the largest number of Joy Division fanatics.

Performances by 3 One G—its name is a reference to the cut "Warsaw"—are fairly rare, usually reserved for special events such as the Night of Joy (Division) in early 2008, which paired a screening of the Ian Curtis biopic "Control" with a 3 One G appearance at Respectable Street. But the band will return to our area July 8 for its first appearance at Miami Beach's Purdy Lounge.

The group is only a couple of years old, formed by friends Danny Scott and drummer Michael Raisner, 28. They found Josh Miller, 25, to play keyboards and guitars, practicing for three or four months before auditioning vocalists to fill the legendary, almost mythical shoes of Curtis.

Aaron Branch, 25, eventually landed the part in a unanimous decision. Imitating the inimitable with every angular, spasmodic dance move and hitting every note with accuracy, Branch is no less than Curtis' doppelganger onstage. Branch's commitment to embodying the character was evident from day one.

"When he showed up, he had gone and gotten a haircut from another friend of ours," Scott recalls. "He said, 'Make me look like Ian Curtis.' When we saw him sing, we all looked at the ground and smiled."

Echoing Branch's well-honed personification of Curtis, the rest of the band tries to be as faithful as possible to the experience of seeing the real McCoy. "We try to evoke the spirit and the feel of being in 1977 in Manchester," Scott says. Still, just as Joy Division's live recordings often came off as looser than its production-heavy studio albums, 3 One G occasionally makes its own small changes to the source material.

"There have been times, especially playing live, where I've added a lot more playing drums," says Raisner, who has studied Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris' parts in depth. "But I listen to a lot of their live stuff, and I've been trying not to overplay it."

While certain songs come and go—the group has started to perform "Ceremony," a song written shortly before Curtis' death that was later recorded by New Order—the band is inherently limited to a relatively small back catalog of songs recorded over a two-to-three-year period, ending roughly with Curtis' 1980 suicide. But like Joy Division's music, the shows never become stale.
"It's the biggest pleasure I have going," Scott says. "I smile the whole time."

With statements like that, it's clear the guys in 3 One G don't share the sense of despair so often associated with the Joy Division mythology.

"You know, the more you read about them, the more you realize they were not a gloomy group of people," Scott says. They were happy, upbeat-type people. Ian's life ended on the note that it did, but if you watch interviews with the band and see their performances of 'Louie Louie,' they were a lighthearted band. We capture that a little bit. We all love each other to death and care deeply about each other."

3 One G will perform 11 p.m. July 8 at the Purdy Lounge, 1811 Purdy Ave., in Miami Beach. Admission is free. Call 305-531-4622 or visit Purdylounge.com. Contact John Thomason at jpthomason@tribune.com.