Was offered last-minute tickets to the Rye Rye/Scissor Sisters gig at Terminal 5 last night and jumped at the chance—my last SciSis concert had been a pleasure and Rye Rye is hotter than...well, NYC at the moment! (We're at the end of our third heat wave of the year already.)

Got my buddy Greg to join me and we showed up around 7:45. Terminal 5 makes you go inside and up in order to wait outside on the third floor around this giant patio, then you file back indoors and fight for your position. Ran into my friends Michael (who ganged up with Greg to try to get me to sample Marina & the Diamonds) and Luigi (who left early to tend to his lonely pooch) and spotted about a zillion hot, slutty-minded guys. Something about the Scissor Sisters breeds those desiring to breed, or at least to do everything but.

You know how I feel about general admission, so this time I decided to stay on the first mezz and try an unobstructed view. Which worked out great! Very little crowding (just a pair of boobs pressed into my back—I'm used to the ones attached to my front) and though things heated up, I never felt it approached all-time suffocation levels I've felt at small Madonna shows at the Roxy and/or Roseland.

Rye Rye, matey!

Rye Rye came first and was a blast. I wasn't all that familiar with her stuff or her new album but she has a staccato style—vocally and physically—perfectly accentuated by a pair of sexy dancers. Between the three of them, they must have worked out every muscle and bone in their bodies while showing off songs "Sunshine", "New Thing", "Drop", "Boom Boom", "Never Will Be Mine", "Dance" and the trimphant closer "Shake It to the Ground". It was like double dutch with a beat.

The performer so nice they named her twice

A real ball of energy, she was seen after the show signing autographs at the merch counter. (I kinda wanted one of her dancers' autographs, too, or at least a DNA sample.)

After an interminable wait of what seemed to be over 45 minutes, the Scissors kicked things off with "Any Which Way". What follows is a shamelessly Jake-centric record of the next 90 minutes. I can't help it! I was more even-handed last time, but this time I focused on him a lot. We were all stranded in the heat, in heat, so it's only natural. Thought there is much to be said for the comeliness and talents of every member of the band.

Hardest working band in show business

Speaking of fairness, do you remember where you were when Jake Shears came out as gay? No, of course not. Because he's always been out. What's with our community being underimpressed with actual gay icons and so intrigued by the ones who refuse to come out? I think it's important to urge public figures to be open about their sexual orientations, but it does feel weird that Jake & Co.—superb live performers and outspoken opinionistas and opinionistos—are never mentioned in all those lists of out stars.

Would you like Babydaddy to be your baby daddy?

The full set list was "Any Which Way", "Keep Your Shoes On", "Baby Come Home", "The Skins", "Kiss You Off", "Inevitable", "Take Your Mama", "Running Out", "Year of Living Dangerously", "Let's Have a Kiki", "Skin This Cat", "Mary", their cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", "Invisible Light", "Shady Love", "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" and encores "Only the Horses" and "Music is the Victim".

Got my eye on you

I just got their new record, Magic Hour, and while I wasn't wowed by some of it (for some reason, "Shady Love" doesn't do it for me), I loved the live renditions of the wispy "Inevitable", the empassioned "Year of Living Dangerously" and anthemic "Only the Horses".

Jonesing for Jake

And one new song I can't get enough of is "Let's Have a Kiki", that balls-out fun update of Dee-Lite and "Deep in Vogue". They did it complete with group-wide choreography and it brought down the house. Lending a helping hand was Justin Bond—Kiki of Kiki & Herb, gitit?

I don't feel like dressin'

The other performance I cottoned to was "Invisible Light", but really everything they do onstage is infallible. Their energy and playfulness must be 100% at all times, but in NYC, they were up to 110% (or degrees).

Some of the hottest guys at the Scissor Sisters concert

Ana Matronic gave a great speech about how the LGBT community has taught her that anyone can be a family, even if you're not related, something that seems to have been driven home after their Gay Pride Month touring duties:

She also promised us that they were going to bend us over and fuck us (alas, metaphorically only) but would respect us in the morning. (Which is when the concert ended, technically.)

Ambience @ XL

After it was all over and Jake had shed his shirt and we'd all shed a pound or two, Greg and I walked over to XL on W. 42nd for the official afterparty. My pal Carmen had us on the list, so we got in and danced like fools until after 2AM. One of the songs that came on was a dance remix of Madonna's "Love Spent"—the best song on MDNA, yet one she is inexplicably skipping on tour—and I must get it! It was followed by a weird remix of Michael Jackson's "Bad", one of his worst songs. I guess it was an '80s mega-artist mini-suite.

As we were about to leave, the Scissor Sisters showed up on stage to do an encore of "Let's Have a Kiki", up close and personal. They looked all refreshed and overjoyed, and left us the latter if not the former.