2009: A Good Year to be a Pet Shop Boy
Two thousand and nine has certainly been eventful for arguably the most successful duo in the history of popular music. This year marks 25 years since the first release of their most famous hit, West End Girls, and in February, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe were presented with a BRIT award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Their new album, the critically-acclaimed Yes followed in March.
So anticipation was high for the boys' first performance at the Auditorio Nacional since the live DVD, Cubism was recorded at the same venue back in 2006.
The show opens strongly with the 1988 UK number one, Heart. Tennant and Lowe enter dressed in black with cubes on their heads and perform the entire song wearing them. Current single, and arguably one of their finest ever songs, Did You See Me Coming? follows and is raptuously received by the capacity crowd.
"Gracias Mexico, it's great to be back!" shouts Tennant.
The two video screens behind display images, including that of a wall being built during Integral/Building a Wall. The screens are then knocked down and revealed to be white boxes, which at various points throughout the evening are re-positioned and moved about by stage-hands dressed in white coats and helmets.
Memorable Moments
The hits keep on coming; Go West, Always on My Mind, Love Etc. are all excellent, but it is stunning versions of the rarely-played Two Divided by Zero and Why Don't We Live Together from their 1986 debut album, Please that really stand out in these early stages. The usually motionless Chris Lowe stepping out from behind his keyboards to walk up and down the stage with four dancers dressed as New York City landmarks is perhaps the highlight of the entire evening.
Two ballads, the utterly gorgeous Do I Have To? and King's Cross offer a comedown of sorts after the more exuberant pace of New York City Boy and a harder, stripped-down Left to My Own Devices. During King's Cross, the atmospheric Derek Jarman-directed video, from 1989's Projections, is shown in the background.
Another highlight is Jealousy, wheretwo of the show's four dancers act out the break-up of a relationship through the medium of dance, to breathtaking effect.
The Pet Shop Boys have often covered other artists' material in their concerts, but Coldplay's Viva la Vida is a surprising choice. After Se a Vida É and snippets of Discoteca and Domino Dancing, Tennant takes to the stage sporting a robe and wearing a crown. "That was when I ruled the world," he sings with characteristic irony.
The final song before the encore is the classic It's a Sin and the boys leave to deafening cries of "Otra! Otra!"
Encore
Neil and Chris come back on stage alone and perform the sublime Being Boring, while wearing big feathery hats. Tennant then introduces the four dancers, Chris Lowe and himself before declaring "Somos Los Pet Shop Boys!"
West End Girls is a fitting end to an outstanding evening's entertainment, an evening that once-again proved that The Pet Shop Boys are anything but a "1980s nostagia act." They are still at the top of their game and making some of the best music of their careers. Here's to the next 25 years!
For more information, check out these other Suite101 articles:
http://electro-music.suite101.com/article.cfm/brit_awards_honor_pet_shop_boys
http://electro-music.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_pet_shop_boys_music_of_the_2000s
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