Gig Review: Scissor Sisters.

picture: idolator.com

SCISSOR SISTERS

12 SEPTEMBER 2010

FOX THEATRE

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

I just can't get enough of this theatre! And so it was on this blustery and somewhat grey Sunday evening that my significant other and I rode the tube underneath the Bay on BART, heading for an evening of confetti, rainbow lasers, sequins, and campy fun!

After a warm-up gig from Casey Spooner (yep, from Fischerspooner) performing tracks from his new solo album and a DJ set from Sammy Jo, Scissor Sisters took the stage. Babydaddy and Del Marquis took their guitarists' spots on either side, whilst Jake Shears (looking outlandishly fit and amazing in a shiny black leotard with trousers sporting mesh on the buttocks) and Ana Matronic (done up in her Joan Crawford 'do, wearing a black S/M-style dress - looking a bit like a naughty 50's schoolteacher who specializes in spanking naughty students) took their spots at the front. Rounded out with a drummer (Randy "Real" Schrager) and a keyboardist (John "JJ" Garden), Scissor Sisters wasted absolutely no time whatsoever in getting their groove on with the explosive title track of their new album, Night Work.

Never have I seen a band exude such confidence, such ebullience. Maybe it has something to do with Ana Matronic playing in her former stomping grounds (she performed as a transsexual impersonator at the seminal (haha) San Francisco club The Stud, during their infamous weekly party "Trannyshack"), but I'm telling you guys - they were on fire. Examples!

picture by yours truly

Their 110-minute set was a well-mixed affair, consisting of a healthy sprinkling of songs from their eponymous debut and the new album. The widely ho-hum-regarded sophomore album Ta-Dah was only represented twice, with the terribly catchy (and Elton John co-wrote) "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" and the somewhat mediocre "Kiss You Off." But let me tell you something - Night Work is a phenomenal fucking recording. I can honestly say that it's a flat-out splendid piece of mischievous, gaudy, frolicking, and intense fun. And, I'm happy to report, it translates to live extraordinarily well. Here are some of my highlights!

The delightfully filthy "Whole New Way" was simply introduced by Ana Matronic: "This song," she deadpanned, "is about sodomy." Featuring a lyric about "Well, I think I need a rubber tonight," I'll just let you use your imagination as to where the song goes!

"Running Out" is probably my new favorite song of theirs, and my nominee for the next single! I'm telling you - this song soars, man. It's an incredibly, impossibly catchy piece of pop confectionary that seemingly has it all: sharp indie guitars courtesy of Babydaddy and Del Marquis, a fantastic disco beat, and chirping, swooping synths that bring to mind some of the best stuff that late 70's/early 80's Krautrock had to offer.

Another track off of Night Work that really works for me (especially live) is "Skin This Cat." Sung by Ana and featuring a deep, progressive throbbing bass-line throughout with a fantastically fun 8-bit keyboard flitting about like a stoned butterfly, it's something of a turn-on when she purrs, "Here, kitty kitty, let's skin this cat." Bathed in a flood of dark purple lights, it was a simply divine moment.

Old favorites such as "Laura," "Tits On The Radio," and "Take Your Mama" shone with the light we've come to expect over the years, though I do have a tiny - tiny - complaint with the latter song. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the fact that they've been playing "Take Your Mama" for, like, ever, or anything, but their performance of it this evening did seem to be a little bit ... lackluster, for want of a better word. Maybe they're getting a little tired of performing it? It's a possibility. Just sayin'.

One little bit of funny occurred during the beginning of the new track "Something Like This." Jake (who's prone to dropping mic stands in the midst of his onstage shenanigans) dropped his mic off the stage just before he was set to begin singing! After the roadie ran out with a replacement, Jake picked up where the song was supposed to be, smiling quite bashfully as Ana did her damnedest to keep from cracking up. He righted himself quite gracefully, and, at the end of the number, Ana laughed and told the crowd, "See? We're really singing!"

Before they tore into the last song of their regular set, "Night Life," Ana Matronic turned serious for a brief spell. "We don't usually read our reviews," she said. Jake piped in "But sometimes you just can't help it!" "Yeah," said Ana, "we read the review of our show in Chicago ... and that fucking bitch called us 'shallow!'" Ana began to get animated, her voice rising, and went off on the Chicago Sun-Times reviewer (I looked it up and the reviewer's name is Misha Davenport) - "So maybe she thinks real life only happens from nine to five; but let me tell you, honey: It's going to clubs that allow people to let their hair down and be themselves. It's where love happens, it's where dreams are born and magic is created. So let me be the first to tell you, bitch: It's not fucking shallow!"

Damn right, sister.

After a five minute break, they returned to a monumental and thunderous rain of applause before scorching into an encore that cranked the show (which was already at a ten) to a fucking sixty-nine. Their highly infectious Pink Floyd cover "Comfortably Numb" was filled with an effervescent energy that shot the already pumped-up crowd over the edge. "Invisible Light" brought to mind the hi-energy rave anthems of the mid-90's, complete with a spoken-word segue from the one and only Sir Ian McKellen (!!!), and then they flew into "Filthy/Gorgeous," which was extended in a huge way, culminating in a confetti drop that went on for minutes!

Campy. Energetic. Boisterous. Ballsy. Fun. Confident. I'd say many things about Scissor Sisters' triumphant return. But "shallow"?

Fuck no.

setlist

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

night life

-----

comfortably numb

invisible light

filthy/gorgeous

Now, here's Scissor Sisters performing "Running Out" live on Chattyman on UK's Channel Four. Enjoy!

Gig Review: Crystal Castles.

photo: thissongissick.com

CRYSTAL CASTLES

6 AUGUST 2010

FOX THEATRE

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

One never really knows what to expect from a Crystal Castles show. Sure, there are constants. They're from Toronto, Canada. They're a duo. They consist of producer and sound-producing extraordinaire Ethan Kath and a diminutive brunette banshee named Alice Glass. When performing live, they have a live drummer who kicks some major ass (in this case his name is Christopher Chartrand). It's loud, it's intense, there are no slow moments, and nothing is expected.

Thus it was at the HARD Festival. Taking its name from a Los Angeles trance fest, the stately Fox Theatre in Oakland, California happened to be the first stop on a cross-country tour; taking their act on the road, I reckon.

Also featured during this glow-stick bacchanal were the DJs Rusko, Sinden, and PROXY! - each of whom, my concert-buddy R. and I agreed, distinctly resembled the strangely popular and bizarre tween phenomenon Justin Beiber. In absolutely no way am I saying that any of these fine purveyors of decent and "HARD" techno-house were lacking in talent; it's just that they were just so ... so damn young. As were our fellow audience members! Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but I'm ... uh, quite a bit older than Justin Beiber. So's R.

I digress.

The cavernous interior of this lovely 1920's Oakland movie palace is filled with intricate gold accents, a brilliant dome, all sorts of terra cotta and lattice-work, with a distinctive Turkish architectural look and feel. Sitting on both sides of the stage are these giant golden statues of some sort of heavy-set deity-looking figure. The eyes, made out of some sort of translucent material, glow from a light that burns within. Have I mentioned that the Fox Theatre is quite literally one of the prettiest venues in which to catch a show? I haven't? Now I have. If you get a chance to visit the Fox Theatre in Oakland, do so by all means. You won't regret it in the slightest!

OK, where was I? Oh yeah, Crystal Castles! Well, they were fantastic - if indeed Crystal Castles are your thing. I'd gone to see them at the O2 in London with my girlfriend - they opened for Franz Ferdinand and The Cure at the NME Music Awards - and the two of us had completely different opinions as to what we had just witnessed. "She ['singer' Alice Glass] just jumped around and screamed at us," is how she put it. I've got admit that that's pretty much what Glass offers on top of soundmaker-extraordinaire Ethan Kath's sinister and icily jagged soundscapes, but I think it goes just a little bit deeper than that. But when you've got Kath and the drummer pretty much keeping to themselves in their respective spots on the stage, Glass provides the holy-fuck-this-show-rocks rock 'n' roll spectacle that a lot of electronic bands somehow lack.

I'm telling you; at the Fox Theatre that Friday evening in the cool evening air of the East Bay, Alice Glass was bouncing off walls during their one hundred minute set. Shrieking like a banshee who's just suffered an ice-cream headache from eating ice-cold shards of broken crystal, she leapt about to and fro like a thrown-about rag doll. She climbed the speakers. She lay on the floor and writhed like something out of an exorcism film. She tried to climb one of the statues. She climbed to the very top of the drummer's bass drum and, quite precariously, began to smash the cymbal with a stick. Frankly, that was the moment I was afraid she was going to hurt herself, she was so all-over-the-place.

Most of the set was devoted to material from their new album (also entitled) Crystal Castles [II], and I found that it melded perfectly with the numbers from the original Crystal Castles. "Fainting Spells," with Glass screaming like she'd just stapled herself in the sternum, glanced flawlessly into "Baptism," which brings to mind some of the best trance I've heard in quite some time. Then we arrived at "Courtship Dating," and the crowd just went batshit. Everybody in the house was dancing their asses off, and I've gotta admit it, I was feeling just as young as some of the Bieberesque kids that surrounded R. and I. "Y'know," I said to R. as "Crimewave" washed over us towards the middle of the show, "this shit wouldn't be the same without her screaming at us." R. laughed and agreed, and we kept on dancing, the long spindly spider-legs of Kath's synth-doodling supporting giant greasy beats and accompanied by an elfish lass with a pretty brunette bob who screamed like her life depended on it.

'Twas quite a show. After a thumpingly-hardcore encore featuring "Untrust Us" and "Intimate," Glass stopped in mid-gesticulation, smiled sweetly at the audience, whispered "Thank you," and dropped her microphone on the floor as she breezily exited the stage, just like a proper rock star.

And that's what seeing Crystal Castles live is all about. I recommend them strongly if they ever come your way. Go see 'em.

setlist

bye!

fainting spells

baptism

courtship dating

insectica

doe deer

celestica

empathy

reckless

crimewave

air war

alice practice

black panther

------

untrust us

intimate

yes no

And here now, for your listening pleasure, is Crystal Castles' track, "Courtship Dating." Enjoy, my friendly audience!