Pet Shop Boys, then Sharks vs. Kings
Pet Shop Boys @ The Wiltern. Then unexpectedly, seeing the Sharks vs. the Kings at Staples.
First, the hockey game... Staples is quite cold. Very cold. Watching the Sharks beatup on the Kings, 7-3 was fun. =)
The Pet Shop Boys show was actually the night before...
Joyce and I had dinner at Guelteza (sp?), then hit the concert. Surprisingly, we made it all the way up to the rail on the floor, despite a relatively late arrival. Waited an hour or whatnot...
The lights dimmed, the dancers came on stage, Chris and Neil emerged, and Pet Shop Boys began!
The use of dancers and backup singers was very good, along with four white background cubes that they did quite a lot with, as the pictures show... running, dancing, miming in a cube, it was a ton of fun. They played "Shopping" and left that as a recurring theme, although Pet Shop Boys is known for recurring themes. *grins* Dreaming of the Queen was done with the white screens turned into a backdrop showing the queen's funeral procession-- very powerful. Hearing Home and Dry acoustic was a surprise, and the costumes for the Sodom and Gomorrah Show were just like you'd imagine from such and absurd song. =)
Pet Shop Boys has enough songs that it's hard to guess what they'd play, particularly since I'd never heard them live before... hearing classics like Suburbia, Rent, Heart, Opportunities, Where the Streets Have No Name, Domino Dancing, It's a Sin, and stuff was great; it was what else they didn't play or that they could have played that boggles the mind to this Pet Shop Boys concern newbie...
Video available here.
Generic setlist:
God Willing
Psychological
Left To My Own Devices
Suburbia
I'm with Stupid
Can You Forgive Her?
Rent
Minimal
Shopping
Dreaming of the Queen
Heart
Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)
Integral
Numb
Se A Vida É (Thats The Way Life Is)/Domino dancing
Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)
Always On My Mind
Flamboyant
Home and dry
West End Girls
The Sodom And Gomorrah Show
So hard
Encore - It's a Sin
Go west