It was an amazing night at the Pet Shop Boys’ Electric concert in DC. This was my third time seeing them live. The duo is made up of two non-performers, so their basic premise for concerts is to stand there — one sings, the other plays keyboard — while exciting things happen around them.
The exciting things happening this time: dancers wearing horned minotaur heads, creative backdrop video, strobes blasting, fog machines, and tons of lasers.
During one song the Boys wore a bowler hat and a disco ball each covered with mirrors while spotlights beamed down on their heads and sent sparkles throughout the hall.
For Love, etc. the Boys got into upturned beds and performed with different bodies from the neck down projected onto the sheets. For Domino dancing the dancers were dressed head-to-toe in tinsel suits bouncing on pogo sticks as Neil got the crowd to sing along. Towards the end the dancers were on 4 legged stilts walking around.
The lasers were my favorite part, they made everything mesmerizing and exciting, you could watch them all night. I've never seen anything like it. Here's the setlist.
Here's a video of the closing number, Vocal from the Moscow set (they have fans and tour everywhere). Skip ahead 2/3 of the way into the video, it explains the epilepsy warning posters outside the concert hall!
The Pet Shop Boys are interesting blokes, and put a lot of thought and deliberation into what they do. So when a new record comes out it's a treat to find interviews where they talk about their work. Here's an electronic press kit video on the making of the new Electric album, insight into their work process, an interview of producer Stuart Price, along with footage from the tour.
[Not my photos above.]
