We Are Scientists @ the Music Hall of Williamsburg, 7/31/08

**Update: see my recap of the We Are Scientists show at the Bowery Ballroom the following night, with much better photos.

After catching the Long Winters show in Battery Park earlier in the evening (thereby achieving the distinction of having attended two shows in one night!), I headed over to my favorite venue, the Music Hall of Williamsburg, to see We Are Scientists for the second time. The last time I saw them was at Baruch College in September, at a “festival” with four opening bands (as you might remember, that night was when I encountered Robbers on High Street).

The crowd was pretty thin before the Oxford Collapse show, so I decided to stand on the raised platform on the extreme stage right for the simple fact that I had been on the left, dead center, at the last show. I caught the entire Oxford Collapse set out of a sort of investigative curiosity. They aren’t really my cup of tea, as I discovered — they sound like Hot Hot Heat on speed, with a rawer edge. After their set, there seemed to be mostly only one guitar tech/roadie, who was kind of flipping out with taping down cables and set lists and tuning at top speed.

We Are Scientists’ set tonight was great — better than the last one that I went to; though I got shut down by the MHOW security when I was taping “Inaction” at the beginning of the show, so I don’t have any video, only some audio from inside my purse.

The set list was predictable, but I suppose all set lists are — “After Hours,” “Altered Beast,” “Impatience,” “Cash Cow,” “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt,” “Lethal Enforcer,” “Chick Lit,” “Let’s See It,” “Tonight,” “The Great Escape” (the last song of the encore, as always), and “Inaction” and “Textbook,” as mentioned. (I can’t recall the rest of the songs or the order that they were in, so if anyone has a recording or a set list, that would be great!) I really wanted to hear “Mucho Mas” but I doubt that they play that song anymore. All in all, it must have been about 70 minutes of music, including the encore.

“Danceable rock” is commonly used to describe We Are Scientists, but tonight it seemed that the band did more dancing than most of the audience. It seemed that Keith was initially having some problems with his pedals, but that didn’t really get in the way. We Are Scientists have a really intense live show — head banging, shredding, thrashing, dancing all included. They all move so much during songs: dancing, head-nodding, head banging and shredding (Max); more sedate head banging and dancing (Chris); and all of the previous, as well as dancing in place with the microphone stand, with his guitar, with both (Keith). They move more frequently and faster than any other band that I’ve tried to photograph. Unsurprisingly, my photos didn’t come out so well.

Though the energy of the crowd was great — between Oxford Collapse’s set and the moment that We Are Scientists came onstage, there was so much spontaneous cheering and clapping in anticipation — I was a little surprised that my fellow concertgoers weren’t more into the songs, especially since We Are Scientists are from the very neighborhood of Williamsburg. The crowd was kind of reserved. It might be better tomorrow night at the Bowery Ballroom; that show sold out six weeks ago, and tonight’s show at MHOW didn’t.

I should have suspected that something was afoot when Keith put down his guitar at the beginning of “Textbook.” Sure enough, he grabbed a bottle of something (?), and hopped down into the crowd… and two crew members immediately followed, to hold up the microphone cord so that Keith could wander through the throng as he pleased. It was one part indie rock next door and one part huge rockstar. Amazingly, his singing didn’t falter much at all though there were so many people around him. The noise that they were surely making didn’t even register; he sounded just as clear and loud as he would have onstage.

We Are Scientists are huge, absolutely huge, in the U.K., so it must be nice for them to come home to Brooklyn to play more intimate shows where they can hop into the audience because there isn’t a barrier in front of the stage. (Actually, I think they do crowd-surf in the U.K.; I read some article in which Keith said that someone stole his shoe[s] when he was in the crowd, and Ricky from the Kaiser Chiefs came to his rescue with an extra pair.) In any case, I’m quite glad that I get to see them in the MHOW/Bowery Ballroom environment.

I really like Max, the newish keyboard player/second guitarist/backing vocalist. I don’t remember the show last year well enough to be able to judge whether his role in the band has evolved since then; that show was one of Michael Tapper’s last, and (I believe) one of Max’s first. The kid can’t stand still, though — he gets really into it when he plays the guitar and so I’ve mostly failed to get decent photos of him in action.

Max plays a red electric guitar. I like it a lot. (Speaking of guitars, if my eyes did not deceive me, Keith has two of the same yellow/wood-colored Fender guitar with a black fretguard. It looked like he was playing the same instrument for the entire show, but there he was playing one guitar and the guitar tech was tuning a seemingly identical one.)

I wonder why the comedy routine is confined to Keith and Chris — kind of like a band within a band — now that there are four band members (I think the new drummer is named Adam?). Max and Adam are mostly silent during the onstage banter that Keith and Chris do so well.

Miscellaneous notes, mostly sartorial: for the first time ever in my experience (in person or in video/photo), Keith was not wearing black Converses, but rather what looked like plain black dress shoes (which were still on his feet after he hopped into the crowd), and very skinny black jeans (Levi’s?). I mention this because he looked like he could really use a good meal, or maybe he’s just very skinny. Chris was sporting a shaved head, which is quite ironic, given the premise of the “Impatience” video.

We Are Scientists’ official site

We Are Scientists are playing again tomorrow night, August 1, at the Bowery Ballroom. I’ll be there — hopefully taking better photos.

**Update: see my recap of the We Are Scientists show at the Bowery Ballroom the following night.