Electric

From the opening bars of Axis to the laser charged euphoria of It's A Sin and new single Vocal, Pet Shop Boys delivered an awesome show reminiscent of the Prodigy, KLF and 90's raves at their best.  Unlike their Performance tour in 1991 which was almost like being at the theatre this was what a pop concert should be: lasers, lights, loud music and dancing which had a sold out crowd at London's O2 arena ecstatic (which considering the queue started at 9am that morning is impressive when they took to the stage 12 hours later).

There was a good mixture of older hits (It's A Sin, West End Girls, Opportunities, Rent, Go West & Suburbia) and newer songs from last album Elysium and forthcoming album Electric. Axis and Vocal are fast-paced rave tracks and Thursday saw guest vocals from rapper Example with the surprise being a medley of Springsteen's The Last To Die and Somewhere which worked surprisingly well.

The support act (John Hopkins) was  a 45 minute blast of techno which gained more reaction from the Italian and French sections of the crowd (one suspects that he is a bit obscure in England) but didn't really engage with the audience which had the effect of making everyone even happier when Pet Shop Boys came on themselves.

The Tennant/ Lowe repertoire is still there, baseball cap, shades, frowning and nonchalant keyboard playing by Chris Lowe whereas Neil Tennant has really mastered the art of showmanship projecting confidence and charisma throughout the show.  Sure there are still aspects of artiness with the costume changes and dancers but at the heart of it are still 2 guys with a microphone and keyboard whose ambition was to record a single with Bobby Orlando that would be on sale as an import 12" in the Soho Shack and have described everything else as icing on the cake and given they achieved that in 1984 that is a lot of icing.

Electric is a show that reminds us all why we love dance music and I think even the most hardened rock music fan would be hard put to not enjoy.