Last night I went to the much-postponed show at the Climate Pledge Arena for Pet Shop Boys and New Order. Yeah, I was especially there for the former. TL;DR: Ossum nostalgia!
Pet Shop boys brought costumes, masks, medleys, sets – a couple of street lamps – and some serious lighting. They also brought the gay stuff, of which I approve highly. No, they didn't play "Go West" to my mild disappointment, but their second song was "Can You Forgive Her?". How could any adult hear that song and not realize that Neil Tenant has the kind of detailed knowledge of what it's like to be gay that no one ever gets second hand?
Yeah, they played "Opportunities" and "West End Girls" because how could they not?
And I must say that Tenant has aged gracefully in the grandest gay boy tradition. We should all be so lucky, but I doubt that luck has everything to do with it. The live versions of many of their songs were oh so close to the ones recorded over thirty years ago; Tenant's voice was up to the task.
New Order is very much post-punk rock 'n roll. They don't do theatrics, but they do several goth club standards with awful purdy synthesizers courtesy of an actual woman, Gillian Gilbert. (Was that a vintage Roland she was playing?) Back in the day, i.e. the aughts, I used to go clubbing where![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cupcake_goth would be holding court. There were several songs to which she would do interpretive chair dances, and New Order was heavily represented among the artists of those songs.
Their encore? A couple of songs by their late front man Ian Curtis, naturally enough. I overheard that that's how they close every single show. Given the messed up nature of his death, can I blame them?
It must be said that Bernard Summer has not aged as well as Neil Tenant; I'm guessing the former is het'rosexual. Sorry, dude.
A note about accents: Summer is audibly from Oop North in England. Tenant is from the south – Pet Shop Boys songs abound with references to London – but he sure sounds like someone who's spent a lot of time in the US.
A note aboutKey Climate Pledge Arena and Ticketbastardmaster: Ticketmaster sent email advising iPhone users to put their electronic tickets in their Apple Wallet so they could use Bluetooth to cruise on into the venue. But arena staff and possibly equipment wasn't having that. I had to fumble with the unfamiliar app and pull up the bar code. So Ticketmaster is a bunch of liars in addition to monopolists and extortionists.
Pet Shop boys brought costumes, masks, medleys, sets – a couple of street lamps – and some serious lighting. They also brought the gay stuff, of which I approve highly. No, they didn't play "Go West" to my mild disappointment, but their second song was "Can You Forgive Her?". How could any adult hear that song and not realize that Neil Tenant has the kind of detailed knowledge of what it's like to be gay that no one ever gets second hand?
Yeah, they played "Opportunities" and "West End Girls" because how could they not?
And I must say that Tenant has aged gracefully in the grandest gay boy tradition. We should all be so lucky, but I doubt that luck has everything to do with it. The live versions of many of their songs were oh so close to the ones recorded over thirty years ago; Tenant's voice was up to the task.
New Order is very much post-punk rock 'n roll. They don't do theatrics, but they do several goth club standards with awful purdy synthesizers courtesy of an actual woman, Gillian Gilbert. (Was that a vintage Roland she was playing?) Back in the day, i.e. the aughts, I used to go clubbing where
cupcake_goth would be holding court. There were several songs to which she would do interpretive chair dances, and New Order was heavily represented among the artists of those songs.Their encore? A couple of songs by their late front man Ian Curtis, naturally enough. I overheard that that's how they close every single show. Given the messed up nature of his death, can I blame them?
It must be said that Bernard Summer has not aged as well as Neil Tenant; I'm guessing the former is het'rosexual. Sorry, dude.
A note about accents: Summer is audibly from Oop North in England. Tenant is from the south – Pet Shop Boys songs abound with references to London – but he sure sounds like someone who's spent a lot of time in the US.
A note about
