Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Scissor Sisters

The 9:30 club was transformed into a discotheque Sunday as New York's Scissor Sisters took the stage. "D.C., it's time to forget your problems!" cried lead siren Ana Matronic at the start of the 75-minute set.

And she was right: After all, it's difficult to focus on the bad things in life when behind the performers there's a wall-size projection of nude breasts bouncing to the music.

Now this was a show. The '70s-era-dance darlings/cabaret act consistently kept up the energy and vibe of what they deemed a "party" all night, with sparkly costumes, laser lights and even tap-dancing.

Few members of the sold-out audience stood still during such numbers as the fabulously unrecognizable cover of "Comfortably Numb," the Scissor Sisters' first hit, which took Pink Floyd's somber classic and illuminated it with all the colors of a disco ball.

The set included a couple of lovely ballads, and they also proved that they could throw in some rock and even a bit of honky-tonk without losing their dancehall-mark style.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the evening, however, was the encore -- because of the two songs, the Bee Gees-esque "I Don't Feel Like Dancin' " and Elton John-mimicking "Take Your Mama," it actually felt like an encore.

The group left 'em begging for more instead of counting off a few seconds before returning to the stage as is the unfortunate fashion these days.

Even after the band reappeared, Ana and her sidekick in spectacle, the indefatigable singer Jake Shears, held out longer.

True divas; truly divine.

-- Tricia Olszewski

Despite its unassuming stage presence -- all skinny jeans, floppy hair and shoe gazing -- psychedelic folk quartet Grizzly Bear evoked the sonic sweep of both an orchestra and Led Zeppelin on the Black Cat stage Sunday night.

Edward Droste, the Brooklyn band's founder and one of its two chief songwriters, kicked off the show by announcing that the band had missed an October date in Washington with TV on the Radio because of vehicular troubles, making this the group's first D.C. show since blogs and music publications had begun to lavish high praise. So the pressure was on to make an impression, and that is what Grizzly Bear did. If not always thrilling, the aural experimentation was definitely satisfying.

The band is known for its flute, recorder, layered electronic noises and harmonies, but live, the electronica was minimal and the songs' meandering tendencies became the focus, their swerving tempos and general shape-shifting punctuated by rumbling guitars and off-kilter drums.

It had the effect of amplifying the psychedelic influences, notably early 1970s rock acts including Zeppelin, though the night's one cover was a '60s tune, the Crystals' "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)."

Perhaps it was best that Grizzly Bear missed its last show here. The crowd had clearly had time to steep in the pleasant swirl of Droste and company's last record, "Yellow House," and shouted requests between songs. The band even indulged one, playing a sparkling rendition of the album's gorgeous closer, "Colorado."

But no dice on the calls for "Marla," a 1930s-era waltz written by Droste's great-aunt and reworked by the band; to play that song, Droste joked, the Cat stage would need a grand piano.

-- Lavanya Ramanathan