Pet Shop Boys, Live At The Civic Opera House, Prove No Greatest Hits Tour

Nov 07, 2016 James Currie Features, Music News, Reviews 0

By Bobby Talamine

Chicago’s Civic Opera House is a temple to high culture. The Pet Shop Boys are in a class unto themselves, fitting the mold of what the Civic Opera House is about. Only they bring their version of what fits: an evening devoted to sophisticated electronic dance music.

The Pet Shop Boys: Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, are arty intellectuals who’ve managed to weave indescribably catchy dance songs for over 30 years.You can’t say that about a lot of eighties acts and their catalogs. Like all Pet Shop Boys productions: nothing is left to chance. The set- designed by Es Devlin- the very much in- demand creative mind behind U2 and Adele’s most recent tours-brings the “S” in SHOW. The exquisite backdrop encompasses classy lighting, visuals with precision that blend in club culture, theatre, cinema, political satire with a mind bending laser show.

For Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, categorization of their music is for others to decide. Their show opens with their usual style and grace. They emerge on stage from two vast white circles, standing still like mannequins taking in the applause, Lowe’s head encased what looks like something from Bejing’s Bird nest stadium during the summer Olympics of 2008, while Tennant is sporting a more open – fronted version. And off we go into Pet Shop Boys dance pandemonium. How to control the crowds coming from the back of the venue to dance in the aisles? You make an initial attempt, then simply give up. The whole night was non stop dance, even to the slower songs.

This is no greatest hits set. A third of the setlist is devoted to this year’s SUPER album and also 2013’s Electric, celebrating up tempo styles to dance culture. West End Girls gets things off to a fast start followed by SUPER’s The Pop Kids, a hymn to pop music. Burn takes its turn on getting off your ass to dance, followed by 2013’s Love Is a Bourgeois Construct, a title wedded to one of the most uplifting dance tracks in recent years. Keep in mind, this has been the Pet Shop Boys M.O. all along: catchy songs with catchy titles.

Tennant’s vocals were spot on the entire evening, and the energy offered up by the 62 year old was inspiring and impressive. Lowe being his usual stoic self, encased in his keyboards and vast array of hats and helmets: a more costumey version of the boys in Kraftwerk.

On a Saturday night, Tennant and Lowe witnessed first hand a rabid fan base that is Chicago, still enthralled by not just the obvious hits of decades gone by, but also by the ones fresh out of the studio the past couple of years. Clever staging and clever pop songs. That is the Pet Shop Boys and their world of dance.

For more on Pet Shop Boys, including the current tour, click here

For photo from the Civic Opera House show, click here

Setlist Pet Shop Boys live in Chicago at the Civic Opera House:

1: Inner Sanctum
2: West End Girls
3:The Pop Kids
4: In The night
5: Burn
6; Love Is a Bourgeois Construct
7: New York City Boy
8: Se A Vida E (That’s The Way Life Is)
9: Twenty- Something
10: Love Comes Quickly
11: Love Etc.
12: The Dictator Decides
13: Inside a Dream
14: Winner
15: Home and Dry
16: The Enigma
17: Vocal
18: The Sodom and Gomorrah Show
19: It’s a Sin
20: Left To My Own Devices
21: Go West (Village People cover)