Pet Shop Boys, Royal Opera House, London
- Written by Nick Levine
The Pet Shop Boys are now the elder statesmen of synth pop. They have survived more than 35 years in the business, and are still socially relevant, with the recent second single from new album Super, 'Twenty Something', being an ode to Millennials working at startups, eating ramen and having to face extortionate rents.
This evening acted as the closing night to a four night residency at The Royal Opera House, one of London’s most prestigious venues, to promote Super and act as a teaser for a new world tour.
The grandeur of the venue was indicative of the Pet Shops Boys' status as national treasures, with the venue seldom being used for events not related to opera or ballet.
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe arrived on stage in rotating pods, accompanied by lashings of lasers. The instrumental beginning of new single 'Inner Sanctum', helped create a sense of anticipation whilst the band readied themselves on stage.
Lowe's onstage presence hasn’t changed for thirty years. He stood motionless next to his keyboard and made occasional prodding movements. However, the thought which had gone into the presentation of the performance meant that this did not matter. The creative director of the production, Es Devlin, has impeccable pedigree having designed the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony and worked with Lady Gaga and Kanye West.
During the earlier parts of the performance Tennant and Lowe wore retro futurist headgear which obscured their faces. The accompanying visuals consisted of choreographed dancing and clouds.
Around one third of the set consisted of a selection of tracks from Super and previous album Electric, both produced by Stuart Price, and allegedly the first two parts of a trilogy. Full on electronic tracks like like 'Burn' and 'Vocal' showcased throbbing strobes and lasers, with the latter leading up a particularly pleasing crescendo which turned into a full on rave. The Royal Opera House was unlikely to have seen anything like this before.
Interactions with the audience were reasonably limited, with Tennant commenting at the beginning of the show that the audience had been packed full of pop kids, a riff on the title of the lead single from Super.
Despite being a seated performance, the audience rose to their feet for the entirety of the show. The loyalty of the band’s fan base meant that even ‘In The Night’, a relatively obscure b-side that acted as the theme tune to The Fashion Show, received whoops of recognition and full-on dancing.
The latter part of the set consisted of back to back hits including ‘It’s A Sin’, ‘Go West’ and ‘Left To My Own Devices’. During this segment a number of dancers appeared on stage in colourful fat suits, with the video for New Order’s ‘True Faith’ being an obvious reference point.
After a two song closing encore, ‘Domino Dancing’ and the high disco energy of ‘Always On My Mind’, the curtain dropped to an instrumental reprise of ‘The Pop Kids’.