dsmith2904
ONE love, blood, life
[SIMG]http://forum.interference.com/gallery/data//585/11265tadah-sml.jpg[/SIMG]
By Andy Smith
2006.10
Taking a simmering and salacious, after-hours gay club vibe to a prime-time alt-rock audience requires work. As in, "Work it, girl." Rather than depend on low-level, prerecorded mix tapes to cast the between-set mood, the Scissor Sisters travel with a DJ. After the opening act Small Sins left the stage by 8:45 pm, Sammy Jo spun to lively up the crowd. As clubby as his cuts and beats could get, the Nashville cuties needed a refresher course in live shows as participatory activities and not mere spectacles.
While the pre-show tension built, other than a few pockets of fabulously frenzied moves, far too many fans stood still for the bumping build-up. But by around 9:30 pm, the Sisters stormed the stage. Then, even the too-cool-for-the-rest-of-us folk were flying hands, flailing arms, freaking hips, and feeling booties to a rousing "Take Your Mama," the perfect opening song.
In contrast to some mixed early verdicts from the rock press, the new songs from "Ta-Dah" fused perfectly with the older tunes from the debut disc in a 15-song set list that freely alternated between both records. Particular show stealers from the new material included "She's My Man," "Kiss You Off," and "Everybody Wants the Same Thing," the latter being the perfect anthem to unite the truly eclectic and electrified crowd.
If people think that the Sisters' funkified fusion of sex and dance would only play well in blue states or places like the Bay Area, they should have taken note of the Frankie Goes to Dollywood spin that frontwoman Ana Matronic put on the whole evening. She was downright down-home in a spicy yet maternal sort of way, paying her respects to many Music City divas and more. The old time religion of the goddess Athena, the feisty spirit of dancing revolutionary Goldman, and living legend Dolly Parton were all collectively conjured by the Sisters' magical matron Matronic.
Warming up to the Nashville crowd by discussing fried chicken, religion, and First Lady Laura Bush's wardrobe, Matronic said she knew we southerners were "close to heaven." As evidence, she mentioned our 42-foot-marble goddess that graces the recreated Parthenon in Centennial Park.
As logic would have it, such pagan invocations and matriarchal intimations provide the perfect introduction to a song like "Tits on the Radio." Later, she commended those dancing and calmly critiqued those stuffy stiffs who might make the dancers uncomfortable. Channeling Emma Goldman, she quipped (and I'm doing my best to accurately paraphrase here), "When the revolution comes, you better have your dancing shoes on." From that charge, lead singer Jake Shears took over and dedicated "Music Is a Victim" to his dozen or so Radical Faerie friends who had driven an hour to attend the show—they'd come from the gay Mecca Short Mountain (a rural, gay commune that's been one of Tennessee's hidden treasures for more than two decades).
This odd marriage has a legendary subculture subtext; it melds hardcore urban glitter with rural hobo glam; it's also a marriage between the Scissor Sisterhood of fans and the gay nuns from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who were representing in full costume. Finally, then, it's a marriage of sin and salvation. And "Music is Victim" is the perfect song for this. Shears sings, "Hell if Jesus had the power than so do I/To rise up from the dead and take up to the sky/I'm buskin' for the money so I get by/If music is the victim then so am I."
By the chilling techno-riffs that ushered in "Comfortably Numb" to the fierce and frankly on-the-floor nasty conclusion of "Filthy Gorgeous," the Sisters proved they could take two albums that are essentially clubby soundtracks and translate these songs into a captivating and intoxicating live set. With Shears, Matronic, and the rest of the band as our personal "classy honey, kissy, huggy, lovey, dovey, ghetto princess," we fans were happy to share the sweaty dance floor for one last round of groping and hoping.
Even as our hosts cleared the club in typical post-show efficiency, the benefit after-party had already begun in an adjacent bar where fans could drink and dance, mingle and meet the band.
How's that for a Tuesday night in Tennessee?
For more information on the Scissor Sisters, visit the band's official website. Check out Interference.com's review of the recently released "Ta-Dah" here.
By Andy Smith
2006.10
Taking a simmering and salacious, after-hours gay club vibe to a prime-time alt-rock audience requires work. As in, "Work it, girl." Rather than depend on low-level, prerecorded mix tapes to cast the between-set mood, the Scissor Sisters travel with a DJ. After the opening act Small Sins left the stage by 8:45 pm, Sammy Jo spun to lively up the crowd. As clubby as his cuts and beats could get, the Nashville cuties needed a refresher course in live shows as participatory activities and not mere spectacles.
While the pre-show tension built, other than a few pockets of fabulously frenzied moves, far too many fans stood still for the bumping build-up. But by around 9:30 pm, the Sisters stormed the stage. Then, even the too-cool-for-the-rest-of-us folk were flying hands, flailing arms, freaking hips, and feeling booties to a rousing "Take Your Mama," the perfect opening song.
In contrast to some mixed early verdicts from the rock press, the new songs from "Ta-Dah" fused perfectly with the older tunes from the debut disc in a 15-song set list that freely alternated between both records. Particular show stealers from the new material included "She's My Man," "Kiss You Off," and "Everybody Wants the Same Thing," the latter being the perfect anthem to unite the truly eclectic and electrified crowd.
If people think that the Sisters' funkified fusion of sex and dance would only play well in blue states or places like the Bay Area, they should have taken note of the Frankie Goes to Dollywood spin that frontwoman Ana Matronic put on the whole evening. She was downright down-home in a spicy yet maternal sort of way, paying her respects to many Music City divas and more. The old time religion of the goddess Athena, the feisty spirit of dancing revolutionary Goldman, and living legend Dolly Parton were all collectively conjured by the Sisters' magical matron Matronic.
Warming up to the Nashville crowd by discussing fried chicken, religion, and First Lady Laura Bush's wardrobe, Matronic said she knew we southerners were "close to heaven." As evidence, she mentioned our 42-foot-marble goddess that graces the recreated Parthenon in Centennial Park.
As logic would have it, such pagan invocations and matriarchal intimations provide the perfect introduction to a song like "Tits on the Radio." Later, she commended those dancing and calmly critiqued those stuffy stiffs who might make the dancers uncomfortable. Channeling Emma Goldman, she quipped (and I'm doing my best to accurately paraphrase here), "When the revolution comes, you better have your dancing shoes on." From that charge, lead singer Jake Shears took over and dedicated "Music Is a Victim" to his dozen or so Radical Faerie friends who had driven an hour to attend the show—they'd come from the gay Mecca Short Mountain (a rural, gay commune that's been one of Tennessee's hidden treasures for more than two decades).
This odd marriage has a legendary subculture subtext; it melds hardcore urban glitter with rural hobo glam; it's also a marriage between the Scissor Sisterhood of fans and the gay nuns from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who were representing in full costume. Finally, then, it's a marriage of sin and salvation. And "Music is Victim" is the perfect song for this. Shears sings, "Hell if Jesus had the power than so do I/To rise up from the dead and take up to the sky/I'm buskin' for the money so I get by/If music is the victim then so am I."
By the chilling techno-riffs that ushered in "Comfortably Numb" to the fierce and frankly on-the-floor nasty conclusion of "Filthy Gorgeous," the Sisters proved they could take two albums that are essentially clubby soundtracks and translate these songs into a captivating and intoxicating live set. With Shears, Matronic, and the rest of the band as our personal "classy honey, kissy, huggy, lovey, dovey, ghetto princess," we fans were happy to share the sweaty dance floor for one last round of groping and hoping.
Even as our hosts cleared the club in typical post-show efficiency, the benefit after-party had already begun in an adjacent bar where fans could drink and dance, mingle and meet the band.
How's that for a Tuesday night in Tennessee?
For more information on the Scissor Sisters, visit the band's official website. Check out Interference.com's review of the recently released "Ta-Dah" here.
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