The Pet Shop Boys, Barclaycard Arena - review
The Pet Shop Boys' mood can swing, as with their music, to euphoric to sad to maudlin. But they're in a good place at the moment.
On their current Super tour, they have rejected much of their poignant and reflective side and chosen to be all out positive.
Songs from their latest album Super and 2013's Electric make up most of their set at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham. Inner Sanctum, from Super, kicks it off.
The duo appear slowly to the crowd, wearing metal helmets, as they are turned around on rotating white discs. An impressive light show, which amazes at times over the set, accompanies their entrance.
Chris Lowe's head is entirely encased in his helmet; Neil Tennant's face is open to the crowd and he wears sunglasses, along with a fetching black blazer, sequin-studded along its lapels.
Their trademark sharp satire is revealed as early as their second song, Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money), followed by The Pop Kids.
By Burn, the fifth song of the set, the helmets are removed and a three-piece backing band take off theirs too - which look like metallic, oversized cycle helmets.
The duo has had dancers on stage on previous tours so it is perhaps disappointing to see a filmed, manic dancer moving along to New York City Boy.
But the positivity continues with Se a Vida é (That's The Way Life Is) and a reworked version of Love Comes Quickly, from 1986's Please.
The Dictator Decides injects some more satire and the accompanying video track of ants crawling over a man is the most troubling thing of the evening.
West End Girls gets the arena chanting its famous chorus and Home and Dry gives more of a opportunity for the lasers and lights to thrill.
They play a critical part in The Enigma and Vocal, before the audience are treated to another old favourite, It's A Sin.
Tennant then introduces a reworked version as a 'new version of an old song', with a blast through of Left to My Own Devices.
The opening bars to Heart tease the crowd, before Go West is accompanied by giant, colour-changing balloons lofted high behind the band, Lowe and Tennant.
They close with hits Domino Dancing and Always on My Mind before they leave with a brief reprise of The Pop Kids.
No Being Boring et al - but they would have brought the crowd too far down for the (mostly) ecstatic night served up.
By Nathan Briant
