The venue for the gig was the Theater of Living Arts, in the South Street area of the city. This had been described to me as being like a mini Soho. Hard to disagree really - lots of fashionable shops, bars and restaurants, and a general feeling that this was the cool and edgy part of town.
The theatre, like many American venues, had a bar which you had to show ID and get a wristband to enter. Once in the bar though, with a beer in your hand, you weren't allowed to take beer out of the separate area, onto the main floor of the venue. The reason for this, of course, is to protect under-21s from coming into close contact with such a dangerous substance as beer.
So, with a weak beer in the bar (despite drinking lots of it, I completely failed to get even remotely drunk, but I did wake up the next morning with a hangover - the worst of both worlds!), I got talking to a number of Americans, many of whom were interested to know about the music scene in the UK. They were surprised that We Are Scientists are much more popular in the UK than in the US, and many seemed to be generally into a good number of British bands. Arctic Monkeys were the obvious example, they rock, and they kick ass, so I was told.
First band on the bill were Au Revior Simone, who looked and sounded very much like The Pipettes. Three girls dressed in black and white checked dresses, they played keyboard-based synth-pop music, to a largely disinterested audience. After their set, they decamped to the back of the venue to sell their own CDs and T-Shirts, and chat to the odd punter that showed an interest. Most of the interest was in chatting them up, not in buying their music though. We Are Scientists themselves were also milling around inside the venue, which was probably no more than 25% full at this point, and mainly full of people who had no idea who they were - so it was easy to stop and talk to them.
Next on were The Double - another New York band, whose sound was a gloomy mix of keyboards and guitars, not at all unlike Interpol in fact, or The National. Some of their songs plodded along unnoticed, but others were full of energy and built up to very noisy finishes. I thought that they were slightly hit and miss, but the "hit" parts were worth waiting for.
At around 10pm, We Are Scientists took to the stage, and I retreated to the upstairs bar, so that I could continue with the weak beer and still get a good view. By this time, then venue was no more than half full. The band started joking amongst themselves, and with the crowd, as they do - getting people laughing right from the off. They admitted to being quite drunk, and were clearly enjoying themselves! They played for around an hour, covering pretty much all of their album, plus a couple of new songs.
What really struck me about the crowd at the gig was that there was very little movement - no dancing, no surging or moshing or jumping around. The crowd just seemed to stand there watching, even at the front. Very restrained, and I couldn't help thinking that if they were allowed to get their hands on beer (and drink it wherever they wanted), that things might have been a bit more lively. We Are Scientists had certainly had the alcohol, so they provided enough madness and jumping around to make up for the lack of activity in the audience!I didn't need to be converted to We Are Scientists, because I was a huge fan before I went. But, in the audience, they did seem to be winning a number of new converts - their set was more polished and refined than previous times I have seen it, but not losing any of the spontaneity and rock and roll-ness. Very good indeed - they now have a long festival season in Europe to come, but on this form, and having this much fun, they will do very well indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment