NB: This review was originally published at SameSame
“I’m not objectum sexual but I am objectum-curious,” Ana Matronic shouts from the stage to the delight of the audience. “And if there’s one building I’d want to do, it’s the Sydney Opera House! So to be inside her tonight…”
The Scissor Sisters in concert were both different and awesome. Different in that there was no support act and no interval, and awesome in that there was no support act or interval. Instead, there was a great mix of the last eight years of music, even if the kids in the row ahead of me had never heard Take Your Mama before.
Perhaps the best thing about the Scissor Sisters is the range of their music. Personally, I fell for the disco electronic sounds and throbbing dance tunes, along with the idea that finally there would be decent music that spoke of life within the GLBT community, and thankfully for us, they’re still going strong.
Lead singers Jake Shears and Ana Matronic were in top form as they belted out hits past and present. The set was arranged to keep the audience on their feet, with tracks Comfortably Numb and Baby Come Home interspersed with slower songs like Mary and Inevitable, although to be fair, the crowd was up and grooving for a good hour before the show began. I was kind of hoping for Filthy Gorgeous, but it’s entirely possible I’m showing my age there. Following the band for so long, it’s been great to hear Matronic step into the limelight a bit more, even if Shears still the frontman by good musical mile. Their newer music has also leant towards theatrical showing, and having a stage as grand as the Opera House certainly added to the drama of their more rock oriented songs.
Special mention has to go to their latest hit, Let’s Have a Kiki, which was performed a total of three times, once at the concert, and twice at the official Klub Kiki Mardi Gras Afterparty. There’s video somewhere, and it may even get uploaded, and yes, I did get to touch both Shears and Matronic, although Del Marquis and Babydaddy retired from the party quickly, to the disappointment to more than a few fans.
Regardless of what you think of their sound, or their refusal to follow trends, the Scissor Sisters remind us of just what it means to be an ‘us’. “I want to dedicate this performance to a very dear friend of mine who is no longer on this earth,” Matronic said, stepping out on stage at the Oxford Art Hotel. “Please raise a glass and dedicate this song to anyone you have lost and let’s party and have a kiki tonight”. I think that sums up the Scissor Sisters better than anything I can come up with, and eleven years on, they still make us feel like dancing.
And for a Melbourne boy’s first concert in Sydney, it was a kiki I won’t forget in a hurry.
