Hahahahaha. On the Scissor Sisters:

Live, then, you would hope they'd be smart and funny and subversive and original. Only they aren't. It's a colossal let-down to discover that the Scissor Sisters are not the witty, postmodern dance band of your dreams, but merely a distressingly orthodox party outfit, perfectly suited to this University of East Anglia student union-managed venue. They provide a party, and dancing, but it feels more like a hen night rather than an epiphany.

There is an air of licensed campery to the Scissor Sisters, an accessible outrageousness that's found a home recently in naff meat markets like School Disco or in Seventies nights down the local Ritzy previously. They seem more 'Gay Bar', the Electric Six song, than gay bar, the parallel universe where the shackles of straight society can be magicked into dust and then danced on. The most troglodytic of rugby players would find nothing to threaten his values here.

BECAUSE THE ONLY GOOD MUSIC IS THAT WHICH THREATENS THE SEXUALITY OF RUGBY PLAYERS. God, this is great.

Mark's right to call it a "backlash" here--it's not a critical valuation, it's just a dumb set of preconceptions being broken down. Why would you want a fun band like the Scissor Sisters to turn out to be confrontational and "postmodern"? Oh, right--because then most people wouldn't enjoy them.

Fuck that shit. The Scissor Sisters are great because of, not despite, the fact that they genuinely want everyone to dance and have a good time. That's a rare thing, because they brought the stuffypants hipsters into the tent first, and everyone else follows. Maybe the "subversion" (ugh) they're peddling is not the challenging-heterosexual-norms project the reviewer here seems to want them to engage in (and I always thought achieving gay rights through song was a dream only peddled in off-Broadway plays!), but in challenging the musical norms of their peer group--a more minor project, to be sure, but a more achievable one, too, and a democratizing one. Maybe the trick they perform is in showing that cheesy 70's nights down at the club really are a hell of a lot of fun, and that that's OK.

The funniest thing is how the reviewer likes the Pink Floyd cover best. Of course you do, sweetie.
posted by Mike B. at 11:03 AM 0 comments