All Will Be Fine

Song: All Will Be Fine
Artist: Small Sins
Album: Small Sins






This past Saturday I saw the Scissor Sisters at the Manhattan Ballroom on 34th Street. An odd but rather nice venue, the show was killer, and I really enjoyed the opening band “Small Sins.” They hail from Toronto, and are a “band” as much as Nine Inch Nails is a band. Like NIN, Small Sins is really one guy, Thomas D'Arcy, who wrote and performed everything on their self titled debut record. He tours with four other guys live, who happened to all wear white pants and white t-shirts. Sort of a minimal gimmick, but they are trying… and it works.

Small Sins sound a lot like the Postal Service, keyboard-based emo with less guitars but remaining melancholy. They rocked a bit more live than they do on record, which seems to be something D’Arcy admits as read on their MySpace page. Although I saw a few fans that have listed that as a complaint. I like the songs I have heard and am interested in the record as a whole. “All Will Be Fine” has stuck out from these that I heard, and yet I can’t seem to match any of these songs with the ones I heard live. Although I am sure they played that one. I do remember thinking that the next to last song was really great and then the final was a little bit of a letdown. Regardless, I quite enjoyed them, enough to research them a little.

I was really excited to see the Scissors new live show since getting the new record and they did not disappoint. They unfortunately could not get their main stage centerpiece, a large wood faux-elevator (from Ta-Dah’s cover) into the venue because (ironically as Ana Matronic pointed out) it didn’t fit in the elevator! Their set list was a good mix of old and new, all the hits, with only some favorite album tracks missing. The entire show was very energetic and the crowd was just loving it. Standouts include “Land of 1,000 Words” which came across better than on the album, and Ana’s “Kiss You Off” which live sounded like the great lost Pat Benatar song that it seemed to want to be. The biggest standout to me was “Comfortably Numb” though. While I have seen them probably over twenty times and each time they perform that song, they really brought the house down. They just know how to do it.

What I really took from the concert though was how much the Scissor Sisters care about their fans and the community that they have created. They waved hellos to the familiar faces in the crowd and welcomed the new ones. And thank you thank you Ana Matronic for getting the crowd to realize that the fun is where you make it. “This might be the best party you’ve ever been to, but it’s up to you. We just provide the soundtrack” she said about half way through the show. One of many fun and great things she and Jake bounced off each other all night. If you haven’t seen the Sisters live yet, I urge you to. It might be the best party of your life.

Enjoy.