By Sophie Scannell, Music Subeditor
Upon hearing that Scissor Sisters were reuniting after over a decade I was nothing short of elated, only to be let down just as quick by the fact that Bristol didn’t make the cut as one of the stops of their arena tour - fair play to them, there is no arena here. My luck turned around only recently when the band announced a string of intimate ‘warm-up’ shows before they set off, one stop being in the newly revamped Electric (formerly SWX). Being mad not to snap up a ticket after such emotional warfare, I was delighted to find that the band didn’t really need a warm-up at all – they were already red hot.
Welcoming the only crowd where a muscle vest and a sequin jacket are equally appropriate attire, the floor was packed and buzzing to see the noughties legends return to the stage once again.
The eager waiting was satiated for a time with Tom Rasmussen's supporting act, which set the stage alight with electronic and starry sounds, interspersed with flirtatious yet touching sentiments all the while.
As anticipation continued to swell, Dolly Parton’s ‘Baby I’m Burning’ held us in a glittery purgatory before the strident beating of 2004’s 'Laura' charged throughout the room and carried us to the climax of the night like no other song could’ve.
Like a hearty pair of boots stomping onto the stage, the famously thumping intro extinguished any doubt that the Sisters had most certainly arrived.
Forming just after the Millennium, frontman Jake Shears and guitarist Babydaddy (devastatingly just a stage name) scouted out vocalist Ana Matronic at her weekly cabaret events. One striking moment that confirmed her as a perfect fit for the band was one of her hired performers dressed as a giant vulva singing ‘Lick Me in My Wet Spot’ to the tune of ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’.
This meet-'cute' set a precedent for the rest of their time together performing at gay clubs and queer spaces across New York, wreaking havoc and performing naughty numbers all across the city's underground club scene.
One thing that was made immediately clear tonight is that this devilish cheek still sits at the forefront of their live presence. Innuendo ridden and audacious, it's reassuring to know that fame hasn’t polished them, but simply given them a bigger stage to misbehave on.
Though Shears attributes the youthfulness of the twenty-year-old group to a remedy of 'salmon sperm and Babydaddy’s chest hair', the vitality of the band became dubious with the highly meticulous setlist arrangement for the show.
Progressing through each song, Shears inches a step closer to unleashing the full wrath of his famous falsetto. ‘She’s My Man’ teased us with entering in and out of that heavenly pitch, tantalisingly reserving energy for some big hitters later in the set.
The need to ease into this hugely challenging range was not met with surprise by anyone in the room, given the twenty-year gulf since the band’s first album.
The self-titled debut was masterful in time-capsuling an era that could never be replicated: pop in the early noughties.
Prime time of Top of the Pops and looney Peter Gabriel-esque music videos, look no further than the bands’ 2005 Brits performance of ‘Take Your Mama’ to teleport straight into the garish, nonsensical wonderland that was noughties pop music and television that Scissor Sisters ruled as their own personal playground.
Small story-telling breaks in between tracks tell us that g-strings and the stripper scene of NYC are the calling cards of backing singers Amber Martin and Bridget Barkan. Two new additions to the band for this tour, the pair are standing in for Ana Matronic who decided not to embark on the tour (ironically due to maybe the most heterosexual reason possible: podcasting commitments).
Recently, with NME, the band reflected on labels pinned on them in the glory days of their career as a ‘gay band’. Grating with the members somewhat, this label felt typecasting and achieved little but '[making] it easier for some [people] to dismiss [them]'.
Unlearning the idea of queerness as a commodity is not a new mission, but one that is still undergoing lots of work. This, along with an all-time high of queer hatred and exclusion, a devastating Supreme Court ruling just two weeks before the show, and a general time of crisis for queer lives really made the liberating performance of 'Filthy/Gorgeous' all the more hard-hitting, and was the pinnacle of the set in my opinion.
Bridget Barkan hammers home these sentiments over the top of the pop masterpiece: 'In all the adversity, in all the oppression - you are gorgeous!', before a fabulously ridiculous buzz of electronic fervour zaps throughout the room.
'We are Scissor Sisters. And So! Are! You!' bellows an elated Jake Shears to an even more elated audience, glistening in the shower of love being poured over them that spills out of the aptly named Electric and floats into the now dusky Union Street.
Featured Image: Sophie ScannellWhat are your thoughts on Scissor Sisters being deemed a 'gay band'?
