Scissor Sisters, Manchester Academy

When you enter a venue and can hear a remix of Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, you know you are in for a great night of music. This is confirmed by the presence of mirror balls hanging from the ceiling. Welcome back to the seventies. Don’t fight it; embrace it.

DJ Sammy Joe is the support to Scissor Sisters this evening by playing a two hour set of classics. Ranging from the likes of Prince to The Velvet Underground and from Blondie to Michael Jackson. It seems that Joe’s sole intention is to cripple your back with dancing. New York are here in Manchester to demonstrate just how much of an influence the city has been by acknowledging its musical past; ‘America is the land of the brave but Manchester is the land of the rave!’

The band arrive after the two hour DJ set by opening up with the new single, which only confirmed that they are doing the right thing by releasing this rather than the gorgeous ‘Tits On The Radio’. The band are here to make you dance and there is not a person in the sold out venue who is able to resist the disco beats as they continue to edge you towards the chiropractor’s door.

As the night gets hotter and the dance moves become bolder, Shears’ clothes keep slipping off much to the delight of the screaming gay men and women in the crowd. Your grin travels from ear to ear as you realise you have been dancing and singing along to a song about a dildo. Ana Matronic’s announcement of ‘I feel so dirty’ as she pulls her top off epitomizes the evening. How anyone at all manages to leave the building with clothes on their back is a mystery.

Scissor Sisters have gone from a venue with seventy five people in to a venue with more than two thousand fans in less than a year. They have had a top ten single, the performance of which was so astounding this evening that the band would have genuinely recieved a standing ovation if everyone was not already standing to start with. This is what success sounds like, this is how success should be performed. No wonder that confidence oozes from the two front people of the band as they converse with the crowd. As Matronic jokes, ‘If we are so fucking successful then where is the pretty boy whose ass I can snort coke off of?’

The joke being that the band are already on a high and are certainly in no need of chemicals to enhance this for them. It’s time we had an excuse for a dance and a night of fun so do as the band say; ‘It’s almost summer, so put away your Smiths records and pull out your Happy Mondays.’