Pet Shop Boys, Luxembourg, 13 juin 2009

Ma chronique est en anglais car je l'ai écrite pour le forum anglophone dédié aux PSB et j'ai la flemme de la traduire en français pour la poster ici. De toutes façons, je soupçonne que la majorité des gens qui lisent ce blog ont une bonne connaissance de l'anglais, donc ça ne devrait pas poser trop de problèmes.


Musically speaking, it is probably the best show of them I've ever seen (and I saw quite a few, starting with the Nightlife tour).
- No interval to dampen the mood, which means an almost continuous mix (there is I think only one very short interruption).
- A very clever use of mash-ups to keep the spectator guessing about what will come next (although it will probably appeal more to the die-hard fans than to the casual fans, who might find it a bit tedious). It also means that most of the songs are played in never-heard-before remix versions. I hope there will be a at some point a live DVD or CD of this tour, so we can actually hear the finer details of the mix, because I probably missed loads of allusions to songs. We apparently heard bits of So Hard or What Have I done?, which totally escaped me.
- A grandiose set-list, which strays away from what they used to do in recent years (Go West and Always On My Mind sung in the first half for instance). In the middle of the show there is a downtempo section that is just to die for (Do I have to, King's Cross, Jealousy, The Way It Used To Be). It gave me goosebumps.
- My only small disappointment is that they totally left recent albums out of the setlist (there should have been a place for Minimal, Integral or Luna Park, as they would have been perfect for the mood of the show). I actually wonder how much of an input Stuart Price had in the setlist. If he had a real influence on the choices made, it could explain why the setlist is so heavily based on the first four albums.
- The Coldplay cover was totally unnecessary, but it might be the closest I ever get to my dream collaboration between the PSB and Brian Eno, so I won't hold too much of a grudge.
- As for external problems not directly related to the band, I thought the soundsystem was not very good and lacked loudness. At times I had to really pay attention to hear the music or Neil's vocals (which may or may not be partly pre-recorded).

Visually, it was a strange mix of DIY stage props (cardboard boxes as far as eyes can see), vintage visual effects (the huge pixels in some projections) and fancy light shows. I was a bit surprised to see they had kept the idea of basing the scenography on cubes. There is even more cubes here than on Cubism.

The choreography was not outstanding but it allowed me to keep focused on the music, which is always nice, especially when I see the show for the first time.

Set list :
Heart / More Than A Dream (reprise)
Did You See Me Coming?
Pandemonium / Can You Forgive Her?
Love Comes Quickly
Love etc.
Building a wall (reprise) / Integral (reprise)
Go West
Two Divided By Zero
Why Don't We Live Together?
Always On My Mind
Left To My Own Devices / Closer To Heaven
Do I Have To
King's Cross
The Way It Used To Be
Jealousy
Suburbia
All Over The World
Se A Vida E
Viva La Vida / Domino Dancing (reprise)
It's A Sin
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Being Boring
West End Girls