Zepp Tokyo, Jan. 2007

Scissor Sisters @ Zepp Tokyo, Jan. 2007

Scissor Sisters are slated as being “special guests” on Sunday night on the Green Stage, which would seem to indicate that they’re going to close the festival. Some may find that blasphemous, since, originally at least, that slot was reserved for some rip-roaring “world beat” act with all sorts of PC cred. Either that or a bona fide electro-dance artist. SS is neither PC nor particularly electronic. They’re the campiest rock band on the planet, and I think that’s exactly what this year’s festival needs, especially after two hours of Massive Freaking Attack.

Ever since Max’s Kansas City met the wrecking ball, New York’s reputation as the place where rock was fabulous has suffered. Those dreary CBGB acts and their devotion to a higher funk denied the more prole enjoyment we of the bridge-and-tunnel crowd got from post-Velvets Lou, Wayne County, and the Dolls. The irony was that prole and gay, for one glowing moment, were strange humping bedfellows (disco had a similar effect, except that gay and prole moved to separate beds), and something of that spirit informs Scissor Sisters, whose musical touchpoints are different–early 70s piano pop rather than Stones raunch, pure disco rather than R&B–but whose purposes are identical–to put a smile on your face and a lump in your pants. They can add a Bee Gees gloss to a Pink Floyd jam and make it work. Similarly, songs like “Tits on the Radio” and “Return to Oz” help you remember what it was you loved about radio in the 70s without actually taking you there and making you wear the dumb clothes. Therein lies the difference: the Sisters are not a nostalgia act. They’re fabulous right here, right now.

The last time they were at Fuji in 2006 they held the White Stage, but they were trying to sell a sophomore album that wasn’t half as interesting as their debut, and you could sense the audience straining to like the material. It’s taken them four years to come up with their third record, Night Work, which will be out June 30, and let’s hope it offers something more provocative than an old photo by Robert Mapplethorpe. So far we have this teaser cut, which ain’t bad, but if you’re going to close out the festival you have to be more than fabulous.

Scissor Sisters home page

Photo by keco, courtesy Smashing Mag