Scissor Sisters at the United Center
February 28th, 2011
Photos By: Katie Hovland
Scissor Sisters Biography
If it’s 5 A.M. and you’re still dancing, chances are you’re running on Scissor Sisters time. For a band that sprung out of downtown NYC clubs like The Cock in the Lower East Side and Luxx in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (a launch pad for the modern electroclash sound), it’s only natural that all things after dark fit the Scissor Sisters like a glove. They twisted disco, New York electro and good old fashioned Elton John-era rock n’ roll into an explosion of infectious dance floor anthems that appeals to just about anyone with a pulse. All are welcome at this party. If pop has a responsibility to be music for all people, the Scissor Sisters — vocalists Jake Shears and Ana Matronic, multi-instrumentalist Babydaddy and lead guitar Del Marquis – have made that type of pop music experience their battle cry.
While the heart of the Scissor Sisters has always been shaped around the exuberance of nightlife, their success has spilled out far past the New York club scene and into the global mainstream. After the B-side to the band’s first single, a jacked-up disco version of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”, became a mainstay in nightclubs across the globe and topped the charts throughout Europe, their eponymous debut album became an international smash — eventually scoring a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Record for “Comfortably Numb”, becoming the top-selling album of 2004 in the UK and sweeping the Brit Awards for that year. The band’s follow-up full length, “Ta-Dah,” (2006) was the first time the band had a single, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’”, and an album simultaneously hold #1 spots on the UK charts.
Their latest effort, the pulsating, critical-success “Night Work” (co-produced by the club wizard Stuart Price who is best known for his work on Madonna’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor”), debuted at #2 on the UK Charts, #1 on the US Billboard Independent Album charts, and in the top 10 in several international territories.
Entertainers at heart, Scissor Sisters have earned a reputation for their humorous, controversial and outright transgressive live performances that have filled venues from New York’s Bowery Ballroom to London’s O2 Arena. There’s really nothing the band wont do to make you dance and get lost in the beat. They’ve infamously collaborated with Jim Henson’s Muppets for their opening performance at the Brit Awards in 2005, and in 2010, stole the show at Glastonbury when they performed a duet (and grinded) with Kylie Minogue for their single “Any Which Way”.
Despite becoming chart toppers and festival headliners throughout the world, the Scissor Sisters have never turned away from the all-inclusive magic of their former downtown stomping grounds. Working in the great tradition of dance music that seeks endless possibility, the band flip musical and aesthetic conventions on their head in favor of a belief that music will set you free. Behind the sweat, exuberant grooves and joyously unrestrained performances is an open invitation. Thankfully, we’re all on the list.
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