Miami Herald

Give Pet Shop props for eschewing props

''Nobody listens to techno,'' boy wonder Eminem scoffs at Moby in his brilliantly caustic new single, Without Me.

He may or may not be right; the world will see when Moby's new album, 18, is released next week. But the age when electronic dance music rules the Earth is certainly up for review when even the Pet Shop Boys turn into guitar troubadours, as the disco deconstructionists do on their new album, Release, and accompanying U.S. tour, which opens at Miami Beach's Jackie Gleason Theater Tuesday.

''It would be going back to our roots if these were our roots,'' says Chris Lowe, half of the English duo known for its theatrical concerts. ``No wigs, costumes, makeup, sets. We're presenting ourselves as musicians for the first time. We're clearing the stage and performing songs.''

Band mate Neil Tennant plays guitar, Lowe plays keyboards; two more guitarists, a percussionist and a computer programmer round out the sound. They'll be playing songs from the band's early days to now.

''If a synth duo comes from the '80s and uses computers and no one sees how it works, people don't realize they can actually play,'' Lowe says. ``We started the Pet Shop Boys because we enjoyed writing songs. But we weren't performers, so we felt more secure if we had costumes and dancers. Now we have confidence and self-belief.''

Lowe and Tennant have been in town for a week, rehearsing and relaxing. On May 3 they caught Rufus Wainwright, one of their would-be costars on last year's aborted Wotapalava (the ''gay Lollapalooza'') tour, at Billboardlive.

''He was fantastic,'' Lowe says. ``I could really imagine doing that tour with him. He's a great performer, completely different from us. I don't think there'd be a dull moment being on the road with Rufus.''

ROCKIN' RUFUS

Wainwright was fantastic: funny and fragile, sarcastic and sentimental. Sister Martha and guitarist Teddy Thompson took turns on the verses of One Man Guy (a song by Rufus' dad, Loudon Wainwright III), each adding a gendered take on the monogamy ballad, sans irony.

He closed the set with a French version of Moon Over Miami, a song he swore he performs in every city. Wainwright, who last year told me he didn't so much come out of the closet as ''wander out, because I smelt something good,'' was palpably happy to be in Miami Beach, after swinging through the Deep South. ''We're not in the Bible Belt now!'' he rejoiced.

We definitely weren't in the Bible Belt when Wainwright, Thompson, the Boys, and Populism converged on Rain after the show, for the DJ set by London's Lazy Dog at the Aquabooty party. Even with the celebs in the house, it was a good, old-fashioned SoBe night, where the tone was set by sweaty, dancing gays and lesbians, not bottle-buying models and playboys.

Lowe and Tennant left before Ben Watt ( Everything But the Girl) began spinning, so they missed their chance to lose body and soul in Tracey Thorn's voice. Lowe said he ''really enjoyed it'' anyway, that it reminded him of Ibiza, before people complained about the noise and all the open-air discos had to have roofs put on them.

Eminem challenges Moby on Without Me. Pet Shop Boys have their own song about Eminem, although he's never named. The Night I Fell in Love is about a male fan who goes backstage and has sex with a rapper. Eminem, who has notoriously bashed ''fags'' in his songs, has not commented on it yet.

In the video for Without Me, Eminem casts himself as Robin, Boy Wonder -- a famous icon for many gays.

''He's obsessed, isn't he?'' Lowe says. ``It's all he talks about! Stan is a gay love story. We're both huge fans of Eminem. He's a good pop star; he says the unsayable, what he thinks. He doesn't come up with a load of clichés.''