TORONTO - There's a lot of duality in the enduring music of British electro-dance-pop veterans Pet Shop Boys.

Emotional, often operatic, ballads juxtaposed against wildly campy, even dramatic, dance anthems.

Both styles were prominent Wednesday night at the Hummingbird Centre. Singer Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe treated an enthusiastic crowd to their astonishing, still vibrant 25-year-old catalogue.

Acknowledging the dual nature of their music was a large, blue brain split in two that was projected onto a screen -- later revealed to be a rather inventive series of moving cubes -- as concert-goers filed into the venue.

Bernard Hermann's film-opening score from Psycho set the mood before two men in white jumpsuits with hoods appeared -- recalling the sperm in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex -- to split the brain in two and begin the show.

Backed by two male dancers, two male backup singers and one powerhouse female singer, Tennant and company wasted no time beginning what would become an elaborate parade of sequined costumes and hats that wouldn't have been out of place at Remington's.

I especially loved the Elijah Wood-lookalike dancer in the gold sequin cowboy hat and gold lame outift during Where The Streets Have No Name.

Lowe dressed in his trademark white baseball cap, and maintained his usual static position on keyboards.

It's a credit to Pet Shop Boys' music that tunes from their latest release, Fundamental -- Psychological, Minimal, Integral and Numb -- stood up against the likes of such uber-hits as Left To My Own Devices, Rent, Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money), Domino Dancing, West End Girls, It's A Sin, and Go West.

Also good was the Bush-and-Blair-bashing I'm With Stupid even if it didn't quite pack the same punch in terms of dance motivation.

Speaking of which, the upholstered seating of the Hummingbird doesn't always lend itself to shaking your groove-thang so the audience was split in half in terms of those on their feet and those seated. It sometimes made it difficult to take in the almost vaudevillian musical splendour but more resourceful types merely changed seats for an unobstructed view.

The most poignant tunes turned out to be Dreaming Of The Queen, as a film of Princess Diana's funeral procession was repeated on a loop, and Home And Dry for which Tennant made the unusual but wise choice of playing an acoustic guitar.

Making the entire evening all the more remarkable was the fact that Tennant, now 52, and Lowe, 47, only launched their world tour on Tuesday night in Montreal. Just wait until they really get warmed up.

SET LIST

- God Willing/Psychological/Left To My Own Devices

- I'm With Stupid

- Suburbia

- Can You Forgive Her?

- Minimal/Shopping

- Rent

- Dreaming Of The Queen

- Heart

- Opportunities(Let's Make Lots Of Money)/Integral

30-MINUTE NTERMISSION

- Numb

- Se A Vide E/Domino Dancing

- Flamboyant

- Home And Dry

- Always On My Mind

- Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You)

- West End Girls

- The Sodom And Gomorrah Show

ENCORE

- So Hard/It's A Sin

- Go West