[Introspective] Fundamental Chicago - PaulDj is back!

[Silver Phoenix]

I haven't even bothered to go see them perform with this tour because my 
interest
just isn't there. I would have liked to see them but the only show I could 
have seen
was in New York and I don't have the time or money to spend on them. I'm 
sure the
people that have seen them enjoyed the tour immensely.

~Silver
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paolo Bientinesi" <pauldj at cs.utexas.edu>
To: <introspective at tcp.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2006 1:33 PM
Subject: [Introspective] Fundamental Chicago - PaulDj is back!


> 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
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