Scissor Sisters
NIA Academy * * * *
Review by Andrew Cowen

It's an apt name: these sharp-as-a-razor San Fran freaks and divas are currently conquering the world.

From disco to stadium in two easy albums, the rise and rise of Scissor Sisters is nothing short of a phenomenon. Providing a glam antidote to glum rock, we need gangs like this in these drab times.

Scissor Sisters are in that noble line of groups who make it big in the UK while remaining pretty low-key in their native USA. Like a big gay White Stripes, they have been taken to the national bosom and claimed as our own.

Over the pond, the Sisters have cracked it on the gay scene, but here they're cherished by kids and mums alike, selling most of their CDs at the supermarket check-out.

On the strength of the two albums and now this show, it's not hard to understand why.

The normally faceless NIA has taken on the groove of an early 1980s disco.

The first thing that strikes you is that this is a proper band. Jake Shears and Ana Matronic may provide the eye-candy, but the musicians working behind are playing up a storm.

With sequins and boas left, right and centre, the Sisters are enjoying every minute of their success. If the new album, Ta-Dah, lacks the immediate joie de vivre of the smouldering debut, it makes up for it on stage where the rubbery grooves are stretched to breaking point.

Of course, the biggest cheer of the night is reserved for number one smash Don't Feel Like Dancing, the chorus prompting a mass outburst of swaying and singing.

Highlights for me were the earlier numbers Mary and the band's finest song to date,Take Your Mama Out. But when a band features a Flying V banjo, you pretty much have to love the lot.