Scissor Sisters, September 11 at the Palladium

A review for this show without the G-word: Scissor Sisters are best known for their flamboyant party anthems but there’s actually a lot more depth to their music than that. One of their (relative) hits was a cover of “Comfortably Numb”, for Pete’s sake. As much as there is a range of emotions and experiences on their albums, in concert it’s all flamboyant party anthems. And it makes for a pretty great party. The band know how to bring it, and they’re actually more of a well-rounded rock band than one might expect. In the studio Jake is clearly the frontman, surely one of their best assets, one of the funnest and most unique singers in rock today (especially since Erasure never had much interest in being fun), but live, Ana takes center-stage, probably more than she should -- she’s good at being back-up but seeing a confident, aggressive woman on that stage kinda works against their image. And Jake looks better in tight, black leather. The rare band that can rock a tiny club as much as hold down a slot at a festival -- the Palladium maybe being a split between those two, and a good venue for them. The only bummer from that night was Casey Spooner doing something that might be called opening, though all he did was sing -- barely capable at that -- with moldy, pre-programmed beats and none of the music engaging at all. His suit easily upstaged him. Luckily, he was smart enough to not out-live his welcome (or maybe we just got there late) and applause was polite for him, but maybe that was just because everyone wanted him off the stage. Or maybe he has a deal with West Hollywood, all of whom showed up that night. Noa and I (fresh from dinner at Roscoe’s across the street -- some of the only breasts we saw that night) were clearly the only straight ones there. Sure were a whole lot of dudes there that were really... happy.

Scissor Sisters’ set-list:
"Night Work"
"Laura"
"Any Which Way"
"She's My Man"
"Something Like This"
"Whole New Way"
"Tits on the Radio"
"Harder You Get"
"Running Out"
"Take Your Mama"
"Kiss You Off"
"I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
"Skin Tight"
"Skin This Cat"
"Fire with Fire"
"Paul McCartney"
"Night Life"

"Comfortably Numb" (Pink Floyd cover)
"Invisible Light"
"Filthy/Gorgeous" (with "Electrobix" snippet)

Pictures.