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15/07 Edinburgh Playhouse Pet Shop Boys strip down to their finest Andrea Mullaney The
Pet Shop Boys THE Pet Shop Boys have never played Edinburgh before, Neil Tennant tells us right at the start. It can’t have been for want of an audience, as the Playhouse is not only full (and extremely warm) but highly appreciative. "Welcome," he adds, "to the new Pet Shop Boys." What that means is a simpler show, where the focus is on the songs rather than the costumes, dancers or concepts of before. It’s kind of Pet Shop Boys Unplugged - well, as near as this synthesiser-loving band could ever come, that is. It’s also the venue as you’ve probably never seen it before, as they come on stage and set up in front of an artfully-constructed "natural" backdrop of a raw theatre at rehearsal time, all exposed brick and wires and bare super trooper lights. While seemingly anonymous, the set actually says quite a lot about how they want to present themselves this time out - it’s their equivalent of the impressionist Mike Yarwood announcing "And this is me" at the end of the show. But it’s also, of course, very stylish, with a superb lighting set up which often throws the figures on stage into moody silhouette. The show starts gently, with a nice version of their recent hit Home And Dry, and a lovely one of Being Boring, a song which just sounds better and better as the years go by. Another couple of milder numbers pass before the set really kicks into gear as red lights flash across the stage for an absolutely terrific, sleazy take on Love Comes Quickly. Sounding more like Frankie Goes To Hollywood at their dirtiest, it’s clear what kind of love they’re talking about. The pace doesn’t let up with high energy runs through Domino Dancing, New York City Boy, Always On My Mind and Sexy Northerner, which sounds rather like a lost collaboration between Morrissey and New Order. The only problem is that being jammed in between the Playhouse’s seats is hardly the best position for dancing. The show does flag, though, whenever they play one of the songs from their downbeat latest album, Release. It may seem like damning with faint praise, but there’s nothing actually wrong with the new stuff; it’s just that, in changing to a more rock style, they’ve lost a bit of their individuality. A couple of these could be by any indie second-rater and they tend to be the cue for people to sit down. But these quieter moments are just brief breaks in a set which crams in most of their greatest hits, and for once that’s not just a technical term. The Boys have recorded more poptastic classics than Simon Cowell’s made sarky remarks, and they slam them out, one by one. And since they’ve made a point of bringing a band, it’s worth noting that it’s a good one, featuring ex-members of Levitation and Spiritualized. It’s
all summed up in an encore which follows a powerful version of It’s
A Sin with a muted run through of Release track, Here. An odd choice,
but let’s hope this isn’t their only visit to Edinburgh. |
