Photos by Ryan Muir
White blocks were stacked onstage and the floor was packed. Before the show started the constant pounding techno beats were nauseating – but the crowd waited patiently as roadies in white lab coats walked back and forth across the stage. The beats got more and more intense and even the dude manning the soundboard was wearing a white lab coat, glorious! There was a tiny boy with his dad and as the white blocks lit up like a rainbow rubic cube the boy hissed excitedly, “Yesssss!” Frontman Neil Tennant – made his entrance with his head the encapsulated in a red box. “Heartbeat” from their tenth studio album Yes opened the show – and the gay disco explosion was ON. The four dancers (three ladies and one dude) acted out an electricity expressing the emotional content of the songs. For “Why Don’t We Live Together?” the dancers were dressed like buildings – Empire State included. All in all the entire performance could have been an exhibit at MOMA – with it’s visuals like paint brushes mixing media with dancing and burlesque worthy showmanship. “Domino Dancing” sadly turned into a Coldplay cover – “Viva La Vida.” But “It’s A Sin” made up for it with the dancer’s writhing bodies giving way to a glitter explosion. The set list was perfect in it’s accelleration. Neil and Chris wore high feathered hats for the first encore – “Being Boring,” an ode to friends lost which was inspired by nostalgia for decadent parties and an old party invitation which said “She was never bored because she was never being bored.” AMEN.
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