Pet Shop Boys’ Smart Sounds Are Firmly Rooted in the ‘80s

“Disco with a brain” once seemed like an impossible concept, but much has happened in the years since the Pet Shop Boys showed that pop aimed at the dance floor could be more than disposable junk.

And it’s come in the form of various genres and subgenres: techno, drum-and-bass, et al.

The Pet Shop Boys still make smart, well-crafted dance music, and singer Neil Tennant remains the master of bitter, tainted love.

But there was scant evidence at their performance Monday at the Universal Amphitheatre that the English duo has absorbed much from the continuing electronic music revolution. Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe made sounds very much in the tradition of their ‘80s pop roots.

Following an introduction that included a typically dazzling light display, the band performed the early-’80s breakthrough hit “West End Girls,” as Tennant descended on a wedge-shaped platform in a black, floor-length overcoat.

His deadpan delivery, set against precise dance music, was offset by a background diva who provided the necessary soulful accents.

But Tennant himself reached some emotional resonance when he cut a sneering tone on songs he described as “bitter and twisted.”

If the Pet Shop Boys make music that seems to come from another time, Tennant and Lowe easily transcended that gap during brief passages that dropped the relentless disco beat in favor of atmospheric textures.