Scissor Sisters - We AreScissor Sisters And SoAre You

Mon 24th Jan, 2005 in Music Reviews

Ah, the Scissor Sisters. Where would we be without them? We’d be in a world where the top 40 charts are devoid of a band with a penchant for arseless leather pants, for a start. Some may say that this rush-released live DVD – coming less than a year after the band’s debut album – is slightly premature. But those people may not realise precisely how big the band is in the UK. In 2004, their album was the top seller – outselling Robbie, Eminem, U2 and whatever Pop Idol/Fame Academy/X-Factor losers the UK could produce. So surely they can be forgiven for trying to milk the album for all it’s worth before hankering down to write the difficult follow-up.

Live DVDs can often be slightly underwhelming unless the band has got a live show just made for your 102 centimetre plasma screen television. Thankfully, Scissor Sisters are that band. Costume changes, lots of dancing, a superb light show.. it fills the massive Brighton Dome brilliantly, and leaves me wondering whether the band’s small shows at Melbourne’s Prince Of Wales and Sydney’s Metro Theatre might work out better if moved to larger venues.

Opening with an explosive version of Take Your Mama Out, there’s no doubting who the stars of the show are. The applause greeting Jake Shears and Ana Matronic as they bound onto stage just before the vocals kick in will have you reaching for the ‘volume down’ button. With only one album of material, the hour-long show is drawn out with some filler – the in-between song banter is far too long. Matronic’s rant just before Music Is The Victim about how the band are “true fans of music, just like you” is unnecessary, but then a group of people in giant animal costumes arrive on stage to dance – a la The Flaming Lips – and all is forgiven. The band is tight, the crowd loves it, and they play all your favourite tracks. The lights are dimmed for Comfortably Numb and there is more simulated sex during Filthy/Gorgeous than at a Machine Gun Fellatio show. Laura and Mary arrive as stadium anthems, Shears leaping around the stage with a stupid grin on his face as the crowd sing every word.

One of the better produced music DVDs in recent memory, the live footage is worlds away from the grainy White Stripes DVD Under Blackpool Lights – filmed with multiple cameras, the footage is extremely slick, moving from close ups of the band to wide shots encapsulating the entire room, and all interspersed with audience shots. The crowd is made up of indie kids and camp men in spiky dog collars – one camera happy lad looks suspiciously like Dafydd – “the only gay in the village” on Little Britain.

Elsewhere on the DVD can be found a half an hour documentary called Return To Oz, which has slick MTV-style production as it shows the band wandering around their home town of New York and talking about the band’s formation. It turns out that the band is inspired by Peaches and that Matronic is a fan of the Blues Explosion, which I find greatly exciting. We also learn that the band’s first ever gig was ten days following September 11, and footage of said gig suggests that the early incarnation of Scissor Sisters was little more than a bizarre cabaret act. You’ll also find footage of the band performing at Glastonbury 2004, in the studio recording I Believe In You with Kylie and hanging out with Bono. Told you they were famous.

Also included is a ten minute promo video, 4Play, offering nothing new – snippets from filmclips, live performances and interviews. You’ll also find five videoclips, including two versions of Laura – most noteworthy for the underwater video to Comfortably Numb. Check out the hilarious fan commentary on the videos, where British Scissor Sisters fans stay largely silent, only breaking the silence to offer such gems as “yeah.. this next bit’s pretty good…”

Since it’s just been released locally in Australia, you won’t need to fork out money online to get this. You will need to fork out money online to get tickets to the band’s February Melbourne and Sydney shows, however, as they have sold out extremely quickly. Based on the live performance on the DVD, it’s easy to see why.

We Are Scissor Sisters And So Are You serves as not only a great introduction to the band for the newcomers, but also as a more than adequate accompaniment to the band’s self-titled album for those who have it – and I know there are plenty of you out there.