‘A sensory assault in the best possible taste’: Pet Shop Boys at Bonus Arena - review
FIRST HULL SHOW: Pet Shop Boys at Bonus Arena
The Crow’s Nest, a music column by Russ Litten
Russ reviews last night’s Pet Shop Boys gig at the Bonus Arena, their first show in Hull
The Pet Shop Boys have been knocking out solid gold hits since the 80s. The reason for both their longevity and consistent chart success is very simple - they understand that the best pop music comes from either black or gay subculture; and the very best pop music has elements of both. This is beautifully illustrated in their pre-gig playlist which features early electropop, Italian piano-led House, classic New York disco, Daisy Age hip-hop, and Detroit Techno, plus choice cuts from dancefloor luminaries like Donna Summer and Arthur Baker. The Dreamworld Tour marked the first time the Pet Shop Boys had ever played Hull and the party was kicking off before they’d even took to the stage.
And the stage sets and various costume changes are worth the admission price alone. The gig opens with the pair of them stood side by side on a stark white stage beneath twin lampposts, with what looks like lightbulb filaments strapped to their heads as the big screens behind them run riot in a mess of monochrome squiggles. It’s like watching Daft Punk performing pantomime in a broken TV factory. Six songs in, the curtain behind them lifts to reveal what looks like a gang of mutant cyberpunks jamming in a high security holding unit. The light show is immense, a constant kaleidoscopic swirl of technicolour and abstract film footage. Further costume changes include a sailor’s uniform with a flowerpot for a hat and matching Bacofoil capes. A gang of construction workers in hard hats pull the scenery back and forth. It’s a sensory assault, but all done in the best possible taste.
‘SLIGHTLY ECCENTRIC RINGMASTER’: Neil Tennant on stage
It’s also a Greatest Hits Tour, so the memories come thick and fast. I’d forgotten just how many top tunes they’d been responsible for over the years. Suburbia, Domino Dancing, It’s A Sin, Opportunities, Rent - each tune is a symphony of deep dancefloor bass and high-camp flourishes with Neil Tennant’s doleful heart-sick confessionals smeared all over the top. A bit like if Jacques Brel had opened Studio 54 in Benidorm for the summer season.
There are also lots of cover versions in the set. Tunes by U2, Harold Melvin and The Bluenotes, Gwen Macrae, Stephen Sondheim, and The Village People are all given the Pet Shop Boys high pop gloss treatment, and sound all the more damn splendid for it.
‘Each song is is a symphony of deep dancefloor bass and high-camp flourishes’: Russ Litten
Lead singer and former pop journalist Neil Tennant is a different proposition to the usual rock ‘n’ roll frontman. Not for him the flamboyant crowd-whipping antics of the seasoned stadium cheerleader. Tennant is more like a slightly eccentric circus ringmaster who’s stumbled into a rave twenty years into the future and decided to read his diary extracts out loud. He does look genuinely delighted to be performing in our fair city, strolling around the stage and waving courteously to the adoring masses like the Queen Mother after a couple of gins. Chris Lowe, by comparison, stands stock-still and prods his bank of keyboards in time-honoured sullen electronic duo side-kick fashion.
The set closes with a pulsating West End Girls and the plaintive rumination of Being Boring, a “hymn to friends lost along the way”. It was a lovely sign-off to a gig that enthralled and comforted in equal measure. As Mr Tennant sagely observed, the last few years have been tough, but it’s Tuesday nights like this that make it all worthwhile.