My Discussion About the Electric Concert

Greetings everybody! I know this have been  long overdue for a blog post! Well as promised, I was going to slowly but surely start blogging again. SInce I am in college, I can also help myself how to write by blogging. I had a stressful week prior to the concert, but after seeing the Electric concert, I feel better than I was last week! I hate to say but I am rather jealous of other fans seeing it more than once, it was a very spectacular concert!

My mother and I took the train to get to the Shrine Auditorium and we came actually rather early, but it was good because the lines were filling up so quickly! While waiting, we met some really sweet cool fans! One happened to be African American like me and my mother! We started chatting it up about PSB info like regular fans and then another couple of fans chimed in the conversation. My mother told me that were very stunned that I knew a lot than they did, which is ironic because they are longer fans that I will ever be, yet I knew a lot of information and they probably also expect my mother to know more because they are in her era and not mine. They were also homosexual but I don't judge, they were sweet and respectful and that's fine by me! Discrimination isn't my interest so I'm open to anyone as long they respect me as a person too. Anyway, as we got in, we had to wait more time because there was a DJ by the name of Jason Bentley that was going to DJ for a few hours before the concert began. I was kind of nervous about a DJ being an opening act because I was quite nervous that the music wasn't going to flow or anything. I went to a fashion model show and this DJ was horrible and I had that upbringing ever since! But this DJ was really, really good! I mean he was so excellent it was like I was in a nightclub or a rave! A lot of the songs were familiar to me because the Boys had a BBC Special and they had their favorite songs that they hear around the country and would play them for other fans to know about what they listen too. I was so impressed by the artists they chose too! 

These are some of the songs the DJ mixed before the show! I totally recommend them some are mainstream and some are indie artists! But they have some gemstones in this treasure box of songs! I was looking for a particular song called Inspector Norse by Todd Terje, because that song is so addicting! I literally can't stop playing it! It had this disco feel to it that I love a lot about it. 

When the concert began after Gui Boratto's Arquipelago finished playing and that's when we waited for a few minutes, I saw stage crew walking back and forth behind the curtains; and the lights started to dim and then Axis played, that's when I had to stand up for the concert because the people in front of me were tall and my mother and I had to switch seats. I was also talking to other fans about the manchester scene and everything and about Joy Division, my info is still a bit scarce but I knew enough to keep a conversation going. When I saw them behind the curtain/screen, it felt so surreal!! It's like wow, I'm here at this concert...seeing the Pet Shop Boys!!! My seat wasn't as bad as I thought because it could have been farther away! It was just so freaking awesome! They played 23 songs and it was brilliant! I had to keep waking my mother up when her favorite song was playing like "Domino Dancing" She loves changing the words so instead of "Watch them all fall down", she says "Watch their ass fall down" I couldn't stop laughing while I was singing with the crowd. Before that even happened, my mother kept telling me to go into the aisle, and I was hesitant at first, but something in my mind kept thinking, what if this is the only concert I ever go to?! So I walked quickly to the aisle and walked until I was behind the pit of fans and snapped photos like you see above this paragraph! On top of that, I didn't and couldn't afford the VIP tickets and I thought I might as well do this much! I know it probably was wrong of me, but other fans did it so why not me? I couldn't get good shots because the zooming was bad and then Neil kept moving so that was going to be impossible so this is one of my best probably my best shot of the band. Then I filmed some of it and started dancing too! I felt like part of me had an odd connection or something! I guess because when the dancers started dancing to the Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky was playing, I thought immediately was this the Battleship Potemkin soundtrack they did previously or was it from Fantasia the Disney movie that consist of randomization of visual animation while classical pieces replicated by the Philadelphia Orchestra (at that time) were playing. Even if they never heard of this particular movie or anything it felt like they are reading my mind or something. I did also mention on one of my blog posts that their experimental work they've done recently such as the soundtrack for the silent film Battleship Potemkin and The Most Incredible Thing really does remind me of Fantasia, all it was missing was some animation! 

Here's the setlist from the Shrine!  I copied from the setlist site. 

1. Axis 
2. One More Chance / A Face Like That 
3. Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) 
4. Memory of the Future 
   ('New Single Mix' version)
5. Fugitive 
6. Integral 
7. I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing 
8. Suburbia 
9. I'm Not Scared 
10. Fluorescent 
11. West End Girls 
12. Somewhere 
    (Leonard Bernstein cover)
13. Leaving 
14. Thursday 
15. Love Etc. 
16. I Get Excited (You Get Excited Too) 
17. Rent 
18. Miracles 
19. It's a Sin 
20. Encore:
20. Domino Dancing 
21. Always on My Mind 
    (Brenda Lee cover)
22. Go West 
    (Village People cover)
23. Vocal 
    (with "It's Alright" snippet)
    
    
    
    
    
    I love the fact that they played other songs that weren't too popular that they have done such as Fugitive, Somewhere, I Get Excited, You Get Excited Too, Integral, and I'm Not Scared. I don't like two of the songs but the fact they played those were really cool. I think I remember they didn't want to play all their popular songs, they also want to play other songs that had little to no success on the charts. It's like going to a concert of a really renown artist and all they play are their famous hits without playing their other songs. But for the most part the concert was absolutely fantastic! I love how "Domino Dancing" sounded! It had this catchy African American sound and of course the Latin sound. I also enjoyed the combination of the songs too like "One More Chance" with "A Face Like That" and "Vocal" and "It's Alright". I enjoyed the colors in the concert too, me as being the artist as I am, how could I not enjoy the colors and the costumes?! It had this vibrant party type feel like a remix of their Pandemonium tour. Only because they worked with Es Devlin again and thought that was a cool idea to do! I wished the concert would have lasted longer but after having a drink and then it was getting late, as soon it was over, we left. I personally wanted to stay and see the band but I understand it was almost midnight and then they had to be back in Mexico for the tour. My mother even said she was truly impressed and the Pet Shop Boys really know how to put on a show. She even now know the artists' names so I won't have to recapitulate it to her again. She also stated that Neil should do more of the sleeping than Chris because Neil does most of the moving, poor mother, she got a lot to learn about them! I told her about the sleeping part because that's what she loves to do is sleep! I think now my aunts want to go to the next one when they come back to Los Angeles and I hope they do! I also forgot to mention I love how Neil does the maestro thing especially when after "Domino Dancing" was playing the fans couldn't let it go, I know I wouldn't. The fans was right, the concert really did feel short! I didn't get any merchandise unfortunately because they were costly and I couldn't find the area where they were selling them. It's fine though, I think after winning an autograph of theirs during a pre-order competition, getting my own shirt online, and (which I need to do eventually) renew my fan club status soon, I really didn't need to spend money on merchandise, if I did I would have gotten the tour program because it was really artsy! Oh I'm not sure If I mentioned this but I did wanted to get an autograph for a friend of mine all the way from Malaysia so that was one of the reasons I wanted to do the Meet and Greet. 
    
    
    
    
    
    

Pet Shop Boys Concrete review

 

 While also listening to Elysium, I was listening to Pet Shop Boys Concrete. Another material that moved me, words cannot describe how this album sounded! It is their 17^th album released on October 23, 2006. It’s a double CD, and mine was from Amoeba Music; imported. It was the first live concert to be put on audio CD. It was located at the Mermaid Theatre for Radio 2 with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Monday May 8^th, 2006. Musical Director: Trevor Horn. It was an interesting choice of title Concrete, it was going to be called Concert but they announce as Concrete, which sounded way better. I guess because concert is a common word and then by them having more than one concert, it’s best to give a unique title. I like the context of the word for it, even the booklet had the sense of gray scale color scheme and pictures of place with concrete or cement on the foundation. It seems it’s like the title for me is like a “permanent” type of meaning of revealing material from the past and newer recent music at the time and also having special guest performances by Robbie Williams, Frances Barber, and Rufus Wainwright. The choices of the songs were fascinating. I mean there’s no “Go West” or “Domino Dancing” or even “Opportunities”. But instead songs like “It’s Alright”, You Only Tell Me You Love When You’re Drunk”, “Nothing Has Been Proved” or “Dreaming of the Queen”, “Friendly Fire” and “Indefinite Leave to Remain.” Some were blast from the past and they still sounded good as well as their newer material. I felt like I gotten a minimal glimpse of Closer to Heaven musical because of Barber’s version of “Friendly Fire” or “After All” from Battleship Potemkin score/soundtrack. That was unusual choice for the concert but I didn’t pay that much mind to it really. I must say that honestly, that “Friendly Fire”, “Casanova in Hell”, and “Jealousy” actually sounded way better than the Pet Shop Boy versions of the track. It just that these individual musicians bring the actual feel to the song, and frankly, these are on my few least favorite tracks but for now, these are probably the only versions of these songs I will truly like rather the Pet Shop Boys’ versions.  “Rent” even though it was sung by the Pet Shop Boys; but it also did a mini bring back of Liza Minnelli’s version, which by far is the best version of the song, I believe. I hate to even admit that “It’s a Sin” and “Numb,” sounded really good on here too because those are also my least favorites of theirs. Not to mention “Nothing Has Been Proved” sounded good because I prefer Dusty Springfield’s version of the song. When they write a song for someone, most of the time I would prefer the version of the musicians it was for versus their version. Then ending it with “West End Girls” of course as the encore was done really well. I can actually just listen to this on my way to school sometimes and it just gives the reminder that they still have so much to offer even at their age, it’s incredible! Fans told me about this concert and they weren’t lying, it was brilliant. It’s good to actually own this, I highly recommend it; those competition winners were really lucky to be around that much art. I haven’t been able to see the music scores, and musical but honestly just by listening to these small glimpses, for me it’s not that much of a rush because this is really that good! 

Opportunities Art

When I saw the latest pet text on the Pet Shop Boys official site, I had to see where this came from. It's actually pretty funny because that's a form of Pop Art/comic book art with one of their songs. It's really cool that Mark Farrow sent them that. I couldn't believe it was from a tumblr site; I actually went to it and come to fine out it had several forms of art, even had couple of my favorite artists including Salvador Dali and Vincent Van Gogh. It's astounding at you what you can find from another form of art. This art piece, if it had the red polka dots, yellow and tear drop from the woman, it would have really looked like something Roy Lichtenstein based art or something he would have done. It's from this tumblr site: Thisisnthappiness. This is worth looking at, if this type of art fascinates you. I also notice white, almost look like some glue was added or something because it have a shell color and white looks brighter obviously.Way to go guys posting such fantastic findings! 

A brief post about DJ Culturemix

I will do another on this one later since of Catalogue! When a friend of mine, Clare told me about this remix of "DJ Culture", I was shocked because Dave Ball of Soft Cell with his band The Grid, did a remix of this song!! Who would have guessed!! I know it’s not really a collaboration, but the fact that something like this happened it’s just really shocking and of course this version of "DJ Culture" is incredibly rare, like pretty much practically a lot of the Soft Cell references or relations I have been recently finding out, like today Clare told me that on Wayne Studer’s site, about “Domino Dancing”, Neil reportedly said that it was a version of Soft Cell’s “Numbers” because of the theme of casual sex. Ironically, it’s one of my least favorite Soft Cell songs; well it was one of those songs I liked but grown out of it. What’s even more shocking, you wouldn’t find that in the Further Listenings booklets! And then by them knowing a Soft Cell song beyond 1982 shocked me because that's more of their rock phase, and I know they aren't so big on rock music, so i find it quite impressive! But anyway I find this so awesome, again someone from Soft Cell that’s in another band did something for the Pet Shop Boys! And to top it off, the video of "DJ Culture" and the photographer of the series were done by the late Eric Watson! It also includes Music for Boys (Part 3) and the Overture to Performance! 

Pet Shop Boys - Discovery (Live in Rio-1994) art review

Discovery Tour dates: 26 October-11 December 1994
production design/Lighting design: Abigail Rosen Holmes
choreography: Les Child;Claire Eastman


I finally watched Pet Shop Boys' Discovery concert all the way through on YouTube, I would love to see this on DVD someday with a commentary along with their movie It Couldn't Happen Here.

This piece starts off with camera footage of Pet Shop Boys and their travels to Latin America, variations of locations kind of like a travelogue, which was pretty cool to see while the song "The Man Who Has Everything" can be heard at the same time. "...Pet Shop Boys wanted a performance that reflected  the sense of sun and sexual liberation that could be found in places like Brazil..." Catalogue (p. 199)This particular concert was filmed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil(South America). The tour; however, was also in Singapore, Australia and Central America. The actual concert begins with a small hint of "Tonight is Forever" and moves on to "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing," this is one of my favorite bits because of the optical illusion, not only from the visual, but also as the giant props that almost look monumental. The outfits Neil and Chris wear absolutely remind me of a Andy Warhol-esque style. They continue to wear the outfits until after "One in a Million/Mr.Vain"(Culture Beat's song), which is my favorite Mash-ups they did out of the three. The other two Mash-ups are "Left to My Own Devices/Rhythm of the Night"(Corona's 1994 song, not to be confused with DeBarge's 1985 version) and "It's a Sin/I Will Survive"(Gloria Gaynor) and also includes a cover version of Blur's "Girls and Boys" and of course The Village People's "Go West."  This concert is very lively as well as erotic, I have to admit this, it's more erotic than the bits in Performance, but sex is a form of art. The line-up was pretty good, I must say! To me, it also gives a reminiscence of their previous tours. Meaning, the pieces including: "Paninaro"(even though it's the 95 version  they are performing, but it's 1994), "Domino Dancing", "King's Cross", and "It's a Sin" and used some of costumes from their 1989 tour MCMLXXIX. "'...And we reused things: some of the Derek Jarman films, some costumes, and sort of brought everything we'd ever done together...', Chris said. 'It was a straight-up concert in many ways. Apart from the naked people in cages.'And the coned hats with lights on,' Neil added.'" Catalogue (p. 199) I have to agree with Neil and Chris, I did have vibes of their previous concerts throughout the whole concert, especially "West End Girls" it definitely reminded me of Performance version almost. And then the fact it's traditional concert at the same time symbolic as well. It's full of art: from dancing, visuals, props, sexuality, costumes, etc. I like the idea of reusing ideas what people have done, it's original and sometimes actually work! The nun outfit in "It's a Sin/I Will Survive"  reminded me of the show The Flying Nun. "'I think this show reflects how we've changed', Chris noted. "We're more liberated, I think we're more liberated as people....Neil rejoin.'" Catalogue (p.199). I again concur, this was a very loose concert, almost like a collision of Performance and MCMLXXIX with a dash of Latin/erotic/liberated flavor. It also proves they can get with the times no matter the age range, it's also intriguing they kept it cultural and funfilled theme as well. It's a nice contrast between 80's and 90's, I must say! "' The whole thing about it was that it was a fun, sexy party show.' 'It was meant to be a party, 'Neil said.'" Catalogue (p.199) And that's exactly what it was! The only two songs that was played on guitar were "Rent" and "Suburbia" and the gold glitter jacket Neil wore is very similar to the one he wore in Performance and "How Can You Expect to be Taken Seriously?" music video only difference is that the cuffs wasn't black in this one. The "Go West" reprise had me laughing because as soon as the music goes out, then it comes right back on, and Chris was being a camera guy for a moment filming the crew and the miles of fan shouting and you have Neil introducing everyone which was respectful. The title itself "Discovery" was a combination between Disco and Very which was a creative move, because it does fit their previous material Disco and Very. A friend of mine Clare told me and she said it's also mentioned in an interview too. It also discovers how freely they can be as people and artists too, and also proving to make use of what they had done back then up to that point and even now. The tour program even have a reminiscence of "Yesterday When I was Mad" straight jacket on it.The VHS cover by Mark Farrow had the colors to represent the same colors of the Brazilian flag and the tone of the concert itself. Andy Earl's photograph of the metallic cone hats was brilliant because the sense of movement ( because of the messing with the speed of the camera) can be define and detected something fantastic is about to go on. They do have an age limit of 15 or older just to be safe. More facts can be found in their book Catalogue (p. 198-201) and other places.The format is only on VHS and Laserdisc as of now, rumor has it that it will be in another format soon.The colors were very vivid as well. It's definitely worth watching in my opinion.Oh I forgot to mention in "Paninaro", Chris does his notable turn arounds, the jacket he worn must have been heavy otherwise he would have spin a bit faster and last but not least, you see Neil doing something very unusual on "Being Boring" as in blowing a kiss.




Here's Sally Field as the Flying Nun, now compare what she's wearing to the female singer during "It's a Sin."