The Electric Tour is synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys' 2013–2015 world tour in support of their two albums Elysium and

Electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

. The first leg started on 22 March and ended in October in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The second leg of the tour was announced in January 2014, starting at the Coachella festival in California in April. A third leg of the tour was announced in February 2015, starting at the Festival Contempopranea in Badajoz, Spain. Notably, the tour was announced on 5 December 2012 even before the announcement of

, the album bearing the same name with the tour.

Concept

The show consists of the band along with two dancers performing in front of a huge screen. The screen often projects the silhouettes of band members

Neil Tennant Neil Francis Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and music journalist, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Chris Lowe in 1981. He was a journalist for ''Smash Hits'', and ...

and

Chris Lowe Christopher Sean Lowe (born 4 October 1959) is an English musician, singer and songwriter, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Neil Tennant in 1981. Biography Lowe attended Arnold School, an independen ...

morphing into different colours or shapes according to each song, but it also projects other types of videos, such as visiting places of the world via Google Earth during Somewhere. The show starts with

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

and ends, on most dates, with Vocal, which are respectively the opening and closing tracks of their

album. The set list has some short interludes or extended instrumental parts to allow the band to go offstage, change costumes and come back. Those moments could also be considered as links between one act and another in the show. The dancers always have their faces covered in some way. They appear for the first time during the interlude preceding

I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys from their fifth studio album, ''Very'' (1993). The song describes a person normally hesitant to unwind and show his feelings, who—because of some ev ...

and finish off on Vocal, both times wearing big minotaur masks.

Reviews

Alex Needham of

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

said of the Sydney shows, "Like a lot of their long career, the show walks a tightrope between pop and art, silliness and profundity. Much of it sees the Pet Shop Boys perform in extravangant outfits (fluorescent orange jackets; a disco ball which entirely covers Lowe’s head) in front of specially-made films ranging from Google Earth images for Somewhere to equations for Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)." Robert Collins of

CTV British Columbia CIVT-DT (channel 32) is a television station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, serving as the West Coast flagship of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Victoria-based CTV 2 station ...

said of the Vancouver show, "... they comprehensively proved how ideas are at the heart of pop stardom."

Setlist

Tour dates

References

{{Pet Shop Boys 2013 concert tours 2014 concert tours 2015 concert tours Pet Shop Boys concert tours