Back-to-the-disco ravers give the gig a clubby uplift with a set full of hits, from West End Girls to Rent
Some people have noted that Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe lack the look-at-us gene usually associated with pop showmanship. Dress them in rubber jackets studded with eight-inch spikes and put metal Viking helmets on their heads they still blend into the scenery, overshadowed by their own backing dancers. Yet their reticence anchors a gig that is otherwise a cross between an Ibiza nightclub and Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Pet Shop Boys are just one element of an audio-visual spectacular that replicates a clubbing experience; for the first 10 minutes, all we see of them are huge sketches of their heads Tennant is now bald, Lowe is still baseball-capped projected on to a screen.
This is, in every way, a big show. Obviously designed for venues larger than the 4,500-capacity Brighton Centre a warning at the box office says: "Lots of strobe lighting and smoke in this show" it balances dystopian visuals (circuitboards, mile-high skyscrapers and the like) with a setlist comprising hit after hit. They find room for bits of their 12th studio album, Electric, and these back-to-the-disco ravers give the gig a clubby uplift. But this is basically a best of set, catering to couples who met when Opportunities, Rent and West End Girls were in the charts. As the classics roll out, their once-futuristic chrome sheen still untarnished, fans face away from the stage and take selfies, capturing a microscopic Tennant and Lowe in the frame.
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by Caroline Sullivan via Electronic music | The Guardian
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