Pet Shop Boys
Obelisk Arena
Friday, 21.30

At the O2 a few weeks ago, Pet Shop Boys performed an imperious pop set to a couple of tens of thousands of gentlemen's gentlemen, and a few busloads of 80s pop fans from London and beyond. It was a joyous, triumphal affair in which the material from brilliant new album Yes easily stood alongside to the hits of two decades ago. Tonight, playing in front of the same cube-themed stage set as they used then, Pet Shop Boys don't quite have the same impact. It starts off brilliantly, electricity crackling out from the mainstage in a way curiously reminiscent of the Kraftwerk performance The Quietus witnessed in Croatia a few weeks ago. This makes sense, for Pet Shop Boys are arguably the band who took the purest form of what Kraftwerk began furthest into the commercial mainstream. Unfortunately, Messrs Tennant and Lowe seem to have rather overestimated the politeness of the festival, opting for a mid-paced set that includes a cover of, blanche, Coldplay. Still, a finale of 'It's A Sin' makes yet another case for it being one of the greatest pop songs ever written.
Next: Wildbirds & Peacedrums