[Introspective] Fundamental Chicago - PaulDj is back!

[Paolo Bientinesi]

Ciao everybody,

I don't even remember how many years ago I sent my last message to 
Introspective... well, I assume not very many people recognize me anymore 
(the vice versa is also true). Maybe someone from Somewhere remembers me? 

Well, I used to be an hardcore PSB collector, until I moved from Italy to the 
US. Here for a number of reasons I kept following the Boys, but I had har 
time keeping up with the collecting part. In the meanwhile I have been 
casually looking at the decline of Introspective. Decline that is very 
natural: back in the 90s we all were very active and in our 20s. Now it's 
much harder to devote time to the cause. I remember initially we used to say: 
it's easy to be active when the band we support produces, releases and tours. 
It's much more difficult when a group is not on a roll anymore. Well, this is 
clearly not the case, because despite the fact the Fundamental is a f...ing 
awesome tour, this list is equally f...ing quiet. 

So, let's get to the point. Fundamental @ Chicago.

I spent 6.5 years in TX. Never seen the PSB around. I just moved to North 
Carolina and guess what?? 3 dates in Texas..  I WAS SO DAMN PISSED...
But well, I took the opportunity to celebrate my bday (yesterday) to go to the 
Chicago gig. That's what real fans do, right?

Ok, 260$ for two seats in a booth in the mezzanine. 
Result: 2 hours of extasy, worth every cent.

The show is simply fantastic. The crowd (not just me) loved it. 
Great song selection and tracklist (the order). Scenography was fun, a few 
more dancers on stage would have improved the transfer of energy from the 
stage to the crowd, but that was ok. Neil did a very good job at setting up 
the audience and the songs and the awesome beats really truly rocked the 
ground floor. 
I was quite impressed to see the Chicago Theatre (massive and posh!) sold out. 

I read some review a few days ago from someone complaining about Chris and the 
loss of momentum because of the song selection. I have no idea what this guy 
was talking about. Chris plays his part (it's now 20 years that he plays the 
same part, with very few exceptions) standing behing some keyboard/monitor, 
doing pretty much nothing. As for the songs, being a dj myself, I can tell 
you that the track order was masterfully chosen. The first part was a 
crescendo. People loved it. Then one slow song after the break and then back 
to dancing with Sa Vida E. And then ups and down, but never abrupt. Some of 
the tracks where even mixed together, almost conveying a club/dj set touch to 
the concert. Plus, in several occasions, the beats were set up to trick the 
audience, making us believe that a song was over, just to start full blast 
again. Again, people loved all of this. 

By now the Boys have sooooo many incredible tracks to chose from that they 
can't go wrong. They even left out Being Boring, universally recognized as 
one of their bestest songs, and I guess nobody noticed (except for the truly 
hard core fans like me, I suppose). The concert was mainly high-energy, and 
the obviously insisting on the gay factor, culminating with the Go West grand 
finale. The crowd was also predominantly gay, so that worked perfectly. 
Also, in these past years I was under the impression that Neil's voice was 
getting weaker and weaker and he would need more and more support singers to 
back him up. Last night that was not the case. Sure there were backup 
singers, but his voice would always stand out.

I just can't stress enough how much fun this concert is. I recommend it as 
much as possible: a floor seat to dance, a higher seat to just sit and suck 
it all in, in any case enjoying a fabulous show.

As Neil put it introducing Chris and himself: "we are still the Pet Shop 
Boys". And I'm sooooo glad about this.

Ciao!

P.S.: Starting Monday, I'm back to collecting.
-- 
Paolo Bientinesi

pauldj at cs.duke.edu                 paolo.bientinesi at iit.cnr.it

-- 
Paolo Bientinesi

pauldj at cs.duke.edu                 paolo.bientinesi at iit.cnr.it