For just one night all of Seattle’s filthy gorgeous were united under a laser aurora borealis wrapped in a sparkle riot as glam favorites the Scissor Sisters shook the Showbox Sodo to it’s brick core. Writhing together with the force of the dance explosion we all became Sisters, at least for a few glorious hours.
Frontman Jake Shears, dressed like a hotter and more ripped version of Dr. Frankenfurter, started the set with “Night Work” - the title track off their new album. From there the fabulous swagger was exponentially multiplied by the lovely Ana Matronic on the crowd pleasing “Tits on the Radio.” No, of course you can’t see tits on the radio. That’s what a Scissor Sisters show is for - people proudly waving their freak flag, in elaborate scissor-shaped head gear, getting disgustingly nasty.
Live performance aside, one of the most lovable things about the band is the wonderful vulgarity of their lyrics. One of my favorite examples: “I ain’t got nothin’ but your seed on my face, you put them babies to waste without your finger in the pie.” On the straightforward “Any Which Way”, Miss Matronic strutted about the stage declaring “You know baby when I was takin’ my pantyhose out of their egg this evening, I thought I am gonna find that man that is the right shade of bottle tan, a man that smells like cocoa butter and cash. Take me any way you like it.” It just doesn’t seem fair to contain this kind of raw power under a roof when the Scissor Sisters are an energy substation that could easily power all of downtown Seattle.
Earlier material like “Laura” and “She’s My Man” were thrown in among a heavy sampling of tracks of their latest release including the KISS-esque “Harder You Get”, “Skin This Cat”, and club anthem “Invisible Light.” And then came the lasers. Their live performance of “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” was like a scene out of Tron, bathing the crowd in a beautiful green electromagnetic haze. But don’t think that the light show and confetti are meant to cover up any shortcomings because Jake, Ana, and the rest of the band sound just as great live as they do on the albums.
Adopted native Shears reminisced about his time as a drag queen at the now defunct Capitol Hill club 20th Century Foxes and his love for Seattle saying, “I was walking down Broadway today and I saw the fiercest hobo tranny in a blue dress and I thought, thank fucking god for this town.” I’m right there with you Jake.
As the party came to end Ana Matronic chastised us to put away our phones, quit tweeting, texting, and “stop trying to preserve the moment for the future and just be in the fucking moment now. It’s about us being together.” And of course we were obedient because the Scissor Sisters command nothing less than the crowd’s full attention. As reward we got “Comfortably Numb” and “Filthy Gorgeous”, blowing up into a sweat fueled transcendent reality.
