ALL good summers must come to an end, and in this case, it was down to Scissor Sisters to see us all out in glamorous, exuberant and utterly triumphant fashion at Queens Park.
After embarking on a reunion tour last year to mark their 20th anniversary, the New Yorkers decided to continue the Kiki into 2026 – and their show in the south side of Glasgow, their favourite city to play, marked the end of this second coming.
And what a show it was. After a day of torrential rain, Jake Shears and co deliver the kind of uplifting, joyous set that makes you forget the world outside entirely.
More than twenty years after their effervescent theatricality and colourful blend of glam rock, disco, psychedelia and pop gained a spiritual home in the UK, their enduring appeal is still clear to see, with a diverse crowd of all ages turning out for one of their most outrageous and theatrical productions yet.
The brilliant Jake Shears is flanked by original members Babydaddy and Del Marquis, alongside a drummer and keyboard player. And while Ana Matronic chose not to be part of the spectacle, two divas, Amber Martin and Bridget Barkin, step in on vocal duties, taking many opportunities to shine and holding their own next to the charismatic Shears.
And from the opening salvo, the crowd is right on side – with the counter-intuitive “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing” setting the tone for the night ahead, into the stabbing, infectious synths of ‘Laura’. What ensues is a hit-heavy set that’s all killer, swinging from the brilliantly camp ‘Tits on the Radio’ to huge singalong ‘Take Your Mama’ to soaring ballad ‘Fire With Fire’ and again to their disco, falsetto cover of ‘Comfortably Numb’.
It feels like there’s a real symbiosis between artist and crowd throughout, as if everyone is in one big party together. This feeling amps up with ‘Let’s Have a Kiki’, a few minutes of pure camp cabaret, into the soaring pop of ‘Only The Horses’.
There’s room for tenderness too, as the main set ends with a heartfelt dedication to Dolly Parton and Tim Curry in a moving rendition of “I’m Going Home” from Rocky Horror Picture Show, the band trading their usual maximalism for something more intimate.
Naturally though, they can’t resist going out with a bang. The encore is pure, unfiltered excess – monsters lumbering across the stage to the brilliant ‘Music is the Victim’ and the crowd in full flow.
Twenty-plus years on from the album that made their name, Scissor Sisters remain exactly as thrilling as when they first crashed the charts: a gloriously unclassifiable tangle of glam rock, disco and psych-pop weirdness. Tonight proves, once and for all, that when it comes to Scissor Sisters, more really is more.
