Royal Opera House, London
Ingenious design helps create an electric atmosphere as the duo celebrate poptimisation at Covent Garden
There’s something of a victory lap atmosphere inside London’s Royal Opera House, for this reprise of the Pet Shop Boys’ Inner Sanctum shows. Just as they did two years ago, the duo – now approaching their fourth decade of applying high-art concepts to pure pop exuberance – have taken up residence for four nights, possibly to facilitate a future DVD release (the final two shows will be filmed by regular collaborator David Barnard). While those 2016 shows marked the start of the Super tour, in support of the high-NRG, house-inflected album of the same name, there’s a feeling of familiarity about tonight.
There’s also sweat, buckets of it. As the deep red curtain, gilded in gold, ascends to reveal the first layer of designer Es Devlin’s eye-popping, multi-faceted set, the heatwave creeps in, temperature raised by dancing bodies, from the moment Chris Lowe triggers opener Inner Sanctum’s buoyant synth riff. “I thought this building was air conditioned!” Neil Tennant huffs later from inside a very unseasonal cropped bomber jacket after a suitably tropical Se A Vida É (That’s The Way Life Is).
Continue reading...by Michael Cragg via Electronic music | The Guardian
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