"And Everything About Tonight Feels Right And So Young" - The Pet Shop Boys Live at the Auditorium, Rome 25/06/15

Looking down the line ups for the summer concert season in Rome this year, you could be excused for assuming that the promoters in this town are of, ahem, a certain age. The following weeks will see appearances by Toto, Spandau Ballet, Lauren Hill, Giorgio Moroder and De La Soul, leading one to ponder whether the music stars of the 70's, 80's and 90's are in dire need of topping up their pension funds or that the only people who can afford concert tickets these days are those with access to mortgage facilities. Yet with good tickets to the Auditorium's Luglio suona bene programme still available at a reasonable €30 - €50, it might simply be that people have finally accepted that abandoning yourself en masse to superior pop, rock, disco and hip hop is not just the province of the young. In the 80's, the Beastie Boys led the fight for our right to party, and God dammit, we're not going to give it up now!

PSB fans pre show.
Or Health & Safety. Who knows?

Last night's performance by the Pet Shop Boys at the Cavea at Rome's Parco della Musica certainly confirmed this. The large, enthusiastic crowd was made up almost entirely of discerning urbanites - and by that I mean gay men pushing fifty, so much so that at times the concert venue resembled a rather flashier outdoor version of the Two Brewers circa 1993 - albeit with a slightly greyer, tanned and better looking clientele. And a better behaved one at that. One of the best things about concert going in Rome is that you are not subjected to the great Anglo Saxon beer swill, as Romans don't deem it necessary to get shit-faced and bellicose on overpriced lager in plastic pint glasses before the first chord is played. No, people were there to have fun as evidenced by the number of cone heads paying tribute to Very era PSB.

This was not, however, a nostalgia show, unlike some of their 80's contemporaries who tour the circuit with greatest hits set list, The Pet Shop Boys remain as relevant today as they did 30 years ago. Their last album, the Stuart Price produced Electric, released in 2013, is one of their best collections yet - showing that their knack for a pithy lyric and a hummable melody, swathed in melancholic electronica has not diminished with time. Like Madonna, PSB have moved forward blending pop nous with EDM edge, tempering a certain knowingness with a genuine affection for the big beat release of the dance floor - a raised eyebrow beneath the raver's raised arms.  While their early hits, Suburbia, which led to the crowd rushing forward to the stage seven songs in, and West End Girls got the whole crowd on their feet and dancing, it was the new tracks, Florescent, Thursday (with Example delivering his rap via the video screen) and the barnstorming Vocal, which closed the show, that kept them there.

What's more these boys know that for electronic music to go over well live, you have to put on a show. And put on a show they did, delighting the crowd with an array of jackets and inventive head wear (a disco ball helmet there, an orange fez there, even a horned number straight out of The Flintstones), and the canny use of 2 contemporary dancers, a laser light show and a couple of confetti cannons. For many members of the audience, last night's event would have revived bitter sweet memories of weekends spent in a fog of dry ice under strobe lights looking for Mr Right For The Night but first and foremost the Electric Tour is a celebration of the transformative power of pop and a challenge to the Swifts and the Biebers that our time ain't over yet.


For a full setlist of the Rome Auditorium concert go to: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pet-shop-boys/2015/cavea-dellauditorium-parco-della-musica-rome-italy-bc9556a.html