Live in Leicester Square: Scissor Sisters

As I mentioned previously, I won tickets to go to see Scissor Sisters live in Leicester Square last night. It was an amazing experience being at a gig in Leicester Square. I've visited it, passed it by, been driven around it many times, that being there for a gig was a really special thing. It's just a great, iconic setting and so I don't think I'll ever forget this gig.

The atmosphere was really good. There didn't seem to be any trouble, and the security even turned a blind eye to the fools who got up and danced in the fountains... I suppose that all added to the atmosphere really. I've only been to a couple of open air gigs (I'm a festival virgin!) so that just added to the extraordinariness of it all for me. It was a lovely balmy night, not too cold- just right in fact. Even the long wait for the band to take to the stage was just about tolerable. There was a DJ, who played generic dance music, but got crowd approval for playing Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Andy Williams, (it was great when everyone was singing a long and no-one seemed to know all the words and it went very quiet suddenly towards the end of the verses!) and Steve's approval for a bit of Primal Scream and New Order, so it seemed to go by ok. The it went quiet and Kylie (Yes, KYLIE!) appeared to introduce them! How fab! She looked really well too.

The band themselves were fantastic. I was a bit disappointed a week or so back that we didn't get round to booking tickets for their forthcoming UK tour in time, so this more than made up for that. They looked like they were having a great time up on stage, just doing what they love. Jake and Ana were in the sparkliest costumes you can imagine: Jake's all over spangly catsuit for the encore was so OTT it made me laugh, Del had his over waist high trousers, BabyDaddy was in a satin suit and Paddy had his normal hat and a very colourful waistcoat on. They have a style all their own, and they pull it off with aplomb!

The music was awesome. I love their first album (although there are some weaker moments in the middle), and the songs from that were real crowd pleasures. Take Your Mama opened the show and got the crowd singing along with them, which was great (it's still my favourite track). They played quite a a lot of stuff formt heir new album Ta-Dah! Which seems pretty strong (I can't wait to hear it tomorrow) and there are going to be some new favourites from that I think. Some highlights included Tits on the Radio, which came across far stronger live than on the album, Comfortably Numb, which was a full on experience on stage, with as many lighting effects as possible, and the crowd joining in all the way through and a barn-storming encore of the current single I Don't Feel Like Dancin' and Filthy/ Gorgeous, both of which were absolutely superb. Sadly there wasn't as much bopping as I expected there to be... We managed a bit, but the crowd was quite closely packed together, which might have made it tricky. Ah well.

So all in all, a great experience overall.

We had a good trip home too. We walked through St James's Park in the dark, which was good, all the way back to Victoria to catch the train back to Wandsworth Common where Steve had parked the car. We got in and didn't fancy any more of Doctor Who and Red, so we put on the Best of ELO and listened to that very loudly all the way home. It was quite fantastic driving through Putney, with the windows wound all the way down and blasting out Mr Blue Sky. We got a couple of odd looks, but we enjoyed it.