> Reviews > Reviews 2006 > Scissor Sour

Review by Rob and Ady.

Welcome to a new occasional series. Gig swap! (No celebrities though).

This idea is great, so great I am surprised no one else has thought of it. Take two people of different backgrounds and put them in a different environment for a while and see how they react and adjust (or don't adjust) to it. To this end we put a couple of people with differing musical tastes into 2 alien gig environments for a night. The first is a big Slipknot, Metallica, and Guns n Roses fan. To protect his character we will just refer to him as Ady. Ady was sent to Nottingham Arena to see mega camp New York retro disco kings the Scissor Sisters. In the same light we have a largely indie fan, we will call him, er, Rob. Rob's task was to endure an hour and a half or so of Slipknot side project band Stone Sour in the steel city's most heavy metal club, the Corporation. With both tasks complete their accounts now appear below. Did they love 'em or leave 'em? Read on.

Slipknot seem to have the special knack of boring me rigid whenever I have seen them live. Yes they are entertaining, but once the novelty of the outfits and masks wear off the boys from Des Moynes parade a one trick pony of power, sub thrash metal that grinds after half an hour or so of the show. Thus I was not overly looking forward to seeing offshoot band Stone Sour. The only stuff I had really heard before from them were the big soft rock anthems 'Bother' and new single 'Through Glass'. I was thinking they would be another Nickleback. The gig was sold out and the venue which I had never been to before was dark, very metal and a kind of similar albeit bigger version of the Cockpit in Leeds. Interestingly I noted that W.A.S.P had played the venue just a few days before. The support act Bullets and Octane whilst enthusiastic were not too original and sounded a bit like LA Guns or Faster Pussycat on speed and were also very samey. The audience received them with polite applause.

Truth was most of the crowd only had eyes (and ears) for one band tonight. Rather than being a Slipknot side project, it could be argued that Stone Sour were the band that spawned Slipknot as they have existed in some form or other since 1992. Founder members vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist James Root are the members who went on to form the masked thrashers and other members have come and gone over the years. Understandably the band have been put on ice several times due to the success of Slipknot and indeed have only found time to record two albums, the latter one, 'Come whatever May' has only recently seen the light of day, reaching an impressive number 4 on the US Billboard chart. Right history lesson over what were they like in Sheffield that cold dark November evening? Well much fucking heavier than I was expecting was the short answer. In fact for a lot of their set they arguably are heavier than their more famous cousins. However better than this they display a knack for writing songs with a semblance of tune and the most obvious reference points are Pantera and perhaps Megadeth. 'Reborn' was the pick of the fast stuff and the crowd really got into the show from the off.

Mid set the band left the stage and Corey, who was an excellent and strong front man throughout, remained with just an acoustic guitar and he ran through the aforementioned slow stuff on his own and this really worked as he built up a special rapport with the crowd. I suspect for a lot the attraction was seeing the Slipknot members out of costume but the music will have won most of them over not least myself who could be found giving them the devil horns long before the end. Splendid stuff and all the better for it being a big surprise.

Fast forward exactly one week and New York's finest disco whores descend on the bastion of sexual tolerance and free love that is, er, Nottingham. Well it seemed that way tonight as a lot of the audience had made the effort to look camp for the evening. As expected the costumes were a dazzling array of sequins, feathers, boas, bizarre hats and other facial adornments. Good work Rob, Ivan & Tim . The Scissor Sisters are a band you don't really need to get down the front for, indeed you need quite a lot of dancing room, so a spot near the mixing desk was chosen. Unfortunately this meant being close to freeloaders including Trinny and Susannah (who blagged their way into the enclosure at the desk) but you can't have everything. I was well impressed with their showing (Scissor Sisters, not Trinny and Susannah) one drunken Friday evening at the Roskilde Festival back in June and was interested in how they would transfer this experience to the arena circuit.

First off a quick mention for support act Gossip. Interesting, though not sure about the songs. Comprising a drummer, bassist, and very large female (I think) singer they command attention and most of the audience seemed to like them. New Rave? well I'm not sure about this but they have certainly got something. Go and see 'em when they appear near you.

The Scissor's stage show was suitably glitzy and sparkling though a big Vegas Style drum riser would have been nice. The elevator doors at the back of the stage that Jake Shears kept going through (I've heard he has a passion for going down) were a cool touch and kept the theme of the album going. The Scissor Sisters made an effort to match the peace and love team's dress sense but something seemed lacking for me from that first Danish encounter. Maybe it was a lack of Tuborg. Sure all the hits were fired off but the lack of familiarity with the new stuff didn't help matters, and I will need to catch up with the new album soon. Being a rocker at heart, 'Comfortably Numb' was perhaps the best offering even though it is camped up to the max, its a great song period. The band were very competent but they never hit full throttle for me and there is a bit too much cabaret about the new stuff.

So although I tried I didn't really get all this disco stuff, there's no doubt the band are really good at what they do but its just not really my thing unless i am out of my head in a Danish field (or a Somerset one for that matter as they are lined up for Glasto 2007 - Ed). It must be said that the audience seemed to love them as well as each other and most of our lot had a ball. Me? Well maybe I should stick to the metal.

Join us again next week when we send Shorty to see Cannibal Corpse and Warro to see the Cliff Richard comeback tour. Or perhaps not.

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