pet shop boys
Jul. 18th, 2002 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memevectorWent to see the Pet Shop Boys on Tuesday.
It was probably the worst sound I've ever heard at a professional-level gig. It was Nottingham Royal Concert Hall, which was designed much more as a classical music venue. I think it's quite well known as being difficult for pop & rock. It probably was better elsewhere in the venue, but it was numbered seats, so I couldn't go wandering around looking for a better sound.
Where we were, 10th row, every time the bass drum kicked in, it boomed hideously and drowned out all the detail except for Neil's voice and a bit of percussion. At least they'd managed to get the vocals pretty clear most of the time. Kept seeing the guitarist wriggling around obviously playing twiddly bits, couldn't hear a fucking note of it. Every now and again, there'd be an intro of just piano or guitar, and the sound would be really good for a few bars until the bass drum came back again. It was rather frustrating, and I think if it had been a band whose music I didn't already know, I might have left.
Despite that, I have to say that on the whole I really enjoyed myself, and got well into "It's a gig and I'm a fan!" mode. I'm not really into their latest album so I'd been wondering if I wouldn't get into the gig either, but they hardly played anything from that - it was more like a greatest hits. To my surprise and delight, they played West End Girls!!!! I really wasn't expecting that. And loads of other things that were hits: Love comes quickly, Being boring, Go West, Always on my mind, Red letter day, Where the streets have no name, It's a sin. First encore was "Left to my own devices", another of my faves.
After a few songs, Neil said something like "Now it's time for a bit of Latin disco!" and they launched into Domino Dancing, and people started getting up. Most people were more standing than actually dancing, but I was dancing. And I had worn my black dress specially.
Then a few more dancey ones, then a sit-down for a slow one, and then more dancey ones, then another sit down and then dancing again. That's not trivial to me because I tend to get backache if I have to stand for ages, and last time I went to see them (in London), everyone stood up all the way through and if I sat down I couldn't see.
The light show was really good, never boring and often rather beautiful, although I did think there was rather an excessive amount of time with the light coming from the back of the stage and not shining at the people on the stage. I think the band saw more of the audience than we saw of them. I mean, this is pop! We want to look at Neil! Well I do anyway :-) For one of the slow songs, they had a huge black backdrop with little lights all over it like the night sky.
Besides Neil and Chris, they had two guitarists, a percussionist and another musician whose job title I didn't catch but who I suspect was in charge of the computers.
Neil doesn't exactly dance, but has a good line in significant hand flourishes. The best one was the "hand to the forehead" move on the word "shame" in "It's a sin" . Classic!
Chris stayed behind the keyboard - well what did you expect? :-)
And one of the best parts was... it was near enough to walk home afterwards (and the weather was good). They've never played Nottingham before. Neil thanked us for being "fabulous" on their "Nottingham debut".
It was probably the worst sound I've ever heard at a professional-level gig. It was Nottingham Royal Concert Hall, which was designed much more as a classical music venue. I think it's quite well known as being difficult for pop & rock. It probably was better elsewhere in the venue, but it was numbered seats, so I couldn't go wandering around looking for a better sound.
Where we were, 10th row, every time the bass drum kicked in, it boomed hideously and drowned out all the detail except for Neil's voice and a bit of percussion. At least they'd managed to get the vocals pretty clear most of the time. Kept seeing the guitarist wriggling around obviously playing twiddly bits, couldn't hear a fucking note of it. Every now and again, there'd be an intro of just piano or guitar, and the sound would be really good for a few bars until the bass drum came back again. It was rather frustrating, and I think if it had been a band whose music I didn't already know, I might have left.
Despite that, I have to say that on the whole I really enjoyed myself, and got well into "It's a gig and I'm a fan!" mode. I'm not really into their latest album so I'd been wondering if I wouldn't get into the gig either, but they hardly played anything from that - it was more like a greatest hits. To my surprise and delight, they played West End Girls!!!! I really wasn't expecting that. And loads of other things that were hits: Love comes quickly, Being boring, Go West, Always on my mind, Red letter day, Where the streets have no name, It's a sin. First encore was "Left to my own devices", another of my faves.
After a few songs, Neil said something like "Now it's time for a bit of Latin disco!" and they launched into Domino Dancing, and people started getting up. Most people were more standing than actually dancing, but I was dancing. And I had worn my black dress specially.
Then a few more dancey ones, then a sit-down for a slow one, and then more dancey ones, then another sit down and then dancing again. That's not trivial to me because I tend to get backache if I have to stand for ages, and last time I went to see them (in London), everyone stood up all the way through and if I sat down I couldn't see.
The light show was really good, never boring and often rather beautiful, although I did think there was rather an excessive amount of time with the light coming from the back of the stage and not shining at the people on the stage. I think the band saw more of the audience than we saw of them. I mean, this is pop! We want to look at Neil! Well I do anyway :-) For one of the slow songs, they had a huge black backdrop with little lights all over it like the night sky.
Besides Neil and Chris, they had two guitarists, a percussionist and another musician whose job title I didn't catch but who I suspect was in charge of the computers.
Neil doesn't exactly dance, but has a good line in significant hand flourishes. The best one was the "hand to the forehead" move on the word "shame" in "It's a sin" . Classic!
Chris stayed behind the keyboard - well what did you expect? :-)
And one of the best parts was... it was near enough to walk home afterwards (and the weather was good). They've never played Nottingham before. Neil thanked us for being "fabulous" on their "Nottingham debut".
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Date: 2002-07-18 03:16 pm (UTC)