The usual programming at weekly alternative gay night Popstarz @ Scala was interrupted for a raucous 30 minutes last Friday as Brooklyn natives We Are Scientists took the stage in the indie room and proved that New York still holds it own on the scene. Plus, as the band released their 2nd album Crap Attack, it showed off just how much impressive songs from In Love And Squalor are when played in concert. Watching bassist Chris Cain go nuts on stage with his nerdy little glasses and sweater is like watching Seth Cohen if he were in an amazingly awesome rock band. We couldn’t help but notice how attractive lead singer/guitarist Keith Murray was, either.
Kicking off with Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt, the band hurtled through about 6 songs and incited the closest thing to a mosh pit that you would get at an indie rock show – namely, a ton of fist pumping, arms waving in the air, and people spilling their drinks all over each other. There was some drunken banter between Cain and Murray between songs, but not too much to stop the show’s momentum. The great thing about WAS playing a gig at a club is that we didn’t have to stop dancing while drummer Michael Tapper vigorously banged out
the beats. Although a brilliant indie cover of The Ronettes Be My Baby, most famous for it's role in Dirty Dancing, certainly slowed down the pace a bit, and created rather a lighters in the air moment.
It was refreshing to see a band that could have us on our feet without drenching everything in synthesizers or electronics for once. We spent the greater part of the set wondering how they made so much noise using just one guitar, bass, and drums. But besides just the awesome noise was their ballsy playing style: Murray twitched like an epileptic on his Telecaster and, after Editors guitarist Chris Urbanowicz joined them for final number The Great Escape, Cain literally fell into the mid-tom, then just lay there and waited for club personnel to retrieve him. (His health and well-being aside) this was a great way to wrap up the
show – someone needs to bring back crazy concert antics, and who better to do it than three attractive American boys who (gasp!) aren’t wearing eyeliner?
We Are Scientists is definitely going on our list of must-see live acts; unfortunately, after their two sell-out dates at Brixton Academy last week, you’ll probably have to cross the pond to catch them again as they’ll be back in the States starting in early December after making their way through France and Germany.
Words by Diana A Salier
