Scissor Sisters Bring High Energy, High Camp

For those of you who missed the Scissor Sisters at Stubb's last night I assure you a good time was had by all. I have only seen Stubb's as packed as it was last night on a couple of rare occasions and never on a Sunday night. Toward the end of the set I made my way toward the back to get a little extra moving, breathing room and I was surprised to see the venue packed in pretty tightly from the stage to the back wall. Generally, there is a pretty big gap toward the back but not last night. Not only that, the back section is usually where the patrons are the least engaged, texting, chatting, generally acting unaware of the concert taking place but I can tell you I saw people dancing and clapping along even in the back toward the porta-johns.

Fresh off their tour with Lady Gaga the Scissor Sisters were sounding well-rehearsed, while looking well-choreographed and fit. Personally, I haven't seen them perform since their first album when they were doing a club tour and I can tell you that their show really hasn't changed a whole lot. The only difference is it's much more exaggerated now than it was then. Instead of wearing just some leather pants, now Jake Shears dons patent leather chaps paired with matching underwear. Instead of just gyrating, now they thrust with vigor. Visually the biggest difference is the band just looks so much more polished than they used to. They were always going for a high-camp, super-fun time but now their back-up dancers have choreographed routines and Jake and Anna seem to have honed what sort of rock 'n roll stage moves get the best reactions. In other words, the club-band I saw has become an arena-band and they did it without compromising their music or their show.


Scissor Sisters - Fire With Fire video via YouTube

As far as the setlist goes, bands always walk a fine-line when promoting a new album. Do you play all kinds of new tracks and risk losing the audience or stick with the classics and hope they become aware of the new songs by the time the next tour comes around? Scissor Sisters managed to blend the new with the old quite nicely. The first part of the set seemed to alternate between the familiar hits and the new tracks. The crowd reacted to the new songs just as well as they did the classics although there was a lot more singing a long to the classics, obviously. I will say that no matter what they played last night people were dancing like no one was watching.

I didn't bring my Bloggy Cam so, unfortunately, I don't have any live-video for you to enjoy but something tells me Austin might see the Scissor Sisters again around Austin City Limits festival time. That is complete conjecture though, I have no connections to the folks who decide those things, I just feel like it would be wise.