Americans with not only a sense of humour but a
sense of irony, no less. What more reason do you need
to catch the sublime We Are Scientists live show?
Hot Club de Paris warm up the crowd nicely enough
with their bass-heavy, indie rock. In any other venue
they'd be a bright light on the leftfield but against
the Californian insanity to come, they just look like
another identikit band of dour northerners filling the
time until the main event.
Call We Are Scientists a novelty act and you might
not be wrong, but there's a lot more to them than
amusing facial hair, lab coats and silly glasses. If
you haven't already signed up to their fan club it may
be because most of this comes over much more strongly
in their live act than it does on record - from the
chutzpah of coming onstage by segueing into the PA
system's Against All Odds (yes, the Phil
Collins one) to the unrelenting banter between
frontman Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain, WAS can
put on a stage show to rival Kylie. Not bad for
three blokes who look like the kind of nerds most
indie kids who are too cool to be bullies have spent
their lives desperately trying to ignore.
Whether you like their music or not, WAS are great
fun live. They bicker like schoolboys, make rude jokes
to the audience, argue about the merits of glittery
silver hats and plough through a storming set
consisting of their album With Love And Squalor in its
entirety, sprinkled with a smattering of what you'll
get on their DVD, B-sides and rarities collection Crap
Attack. There's also a new song, Tonight Tonight, and
the so-far-unreleased Best Behaviour.
Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt is as great a
sing-along moshpit favourite as ever and The Great
Escape is given a boost (not that it needs one) by
help from Editors guitarist Chris Urbanowicz.
For a band that's at such an early stage of its
career, this is a fantastically accomplished set. Its
only downside, you may think, is that playing
everything they have leaves no room for an encore.
You'd be wrong, because if you've got the
tongue-in-cheek genius of We Are Scientists behind
you, when you've exhausted everything you have, you'll
just dig into the Oxfam bargain bin and pull out the
first embarrassing decade-old school disco tune you
can find and reinvent it to round off the evening.
And so WAS are back, handing lead vocals over to
drummer Michael Tapper as they once again croon over
the backing tapes, this time to the Boyz II Men
hit End Of The Road for a triumphant farewell.
Urbanowicz and Hot Club de Paris join them for the
final bow as the audience sways its arms in unison and
sings along enthusiastically to a song the Brixton
faithful would never dare admit to liking outside of
the confines of this inner sanctum. It's fun and it's
fresh. Even if you don't think you're a fan, catch
them live once, just for the hell of it.
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