Concert review: Pet Shop Boys and New Order fill the Armory with fans giddy for synthpop classics

A bunch of sixtysomething Brits filled the Armory in Minneapolis Sunday night and offered a dazzling and nostalgic evening of still-potent electronic smashes.

Pet Shop Boys and New Order announced their joint North American tour back in February 2020, just weeks before the world went into pandemic shutdown. Two and a half years later, they finally made it to Minneapolis – one of just 13 shows on the tour – and it was well worth the wait.

Both acts emerged from England in the ’80s with unique takes on pop music. Pet Shop Boys made songs that were witty, arch and quite gay (even though lead singer Neil Tennant didn’t publicly come out until 1994 and keyboardist Chris Lowe has never discussed his sexuality). New Order, meanwhile, rose out of the ashes of the post punk band Joy Division (whose lead singer Ian Curtis took his own life the day before the band’s first U.S. tour) and fused guitars and a bass played like a guitar with electronics.

The combined draw of the two acts – who are swapping spots each night – allowed them to play a significantly larger-than-usual venue. PSB’s three previous local shows took place at the State and Orpheum theaters, while New Order’s sole Minnesota concert of the 21st century happened at the Palace Theatre in 2018.

Sunday night, Pet Shop Boys took the stage just before 7:30 p.m. after a set from legendary DJ Paul Oakenfold (who returned for a second set before New Order). At 68, Tennant is the oldest musician on the tour, but he still exudes youthful energy. And, as always, Lowe played the role of stoic sidekick, mostly standing still behind his keyboards and barely acknowledging anything going around him, including the crowd.

Over the past 36 years, Pet Shop Boys have maintained a prolific career with 14 studio albums, more than 70 singles and a host of other projects. But the pair had never mounted a greatest hits tour until this summer in Europe. The current dates cut the 26-song set list down to 19 tracks, presumably to match New Order’s 80-minute running time.

That meant some true PSB classics – “Go West,” “What Have I Done to Deserve This” and “New York City Boy” among them – didn’t make the cut Sunday. But the set still pulsed with constant energy, from the clever “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” to the sordid “It’s a Sin.” The duo’s covers were a lot of fun as well, including “Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You),” “Always on My Mind,” “It’s Alright” and Stephen Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind” (the sole b-side of the night).

High points in a set full of them included the lush “Love Comes Quickly” and a fierce “Domino Dancing” complete with the audience singing the choruses. Tennant barely took a breath between songs, giving the show a real forward-driving momentum that kept going until the encore of “West End Girls” and “Being Boring.”

New Order – whose live show was notoriously hit or miss back in the day – didn’t have quite the same urgency and lead singer Bernard Sumner has lost some of his voice. At times, the 66-year-old yelped out his lyrics and at other times attempted to slip into a croon with limited success.

The band more than made it for it, though, both recreating some of the most precise songs of the era and occasionally adding a new spin. And bassist Tom Chapman did an admirable job of tackling Peter Hook’s truly iconic sound. (Hook left the group in 2007 and now does terrific solo tours devoted to entire New Order and Joy Division albums.) Oh, and they were loud, too, giving songs like “Blue Monday” and “Age of Content” a real arena rock heft.

In addition to a curated selection of tracks from New Order’s ’80s heyday – “Subculture” and “Temptation” were stand outs – they played a pair of songs from their most recent album, 2015’s “Music Complete,” but unfortunately the epic banger “People on the High Line” (the band’s best song in decades) wasn’t one of them.

They also aired their recent stand-alone single “Be a Rebel,” which suffers from some insipid lyrics (“You’re just different, that’s OK … Be a rebel, not a devil,” goes the chorus). But, again, the band played it with such conviction, it was tough not be won over.