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Purveyors of high-IQ indie rock, We Are Scientists have built a reputation as incendiary live performers. But they won’t be satisfied until their shows include performing tigers.
Steve Cummins, 07 Mar 2006
It is day two of the NME Awards tour. Backstage at Dublin’s Ambassador Theatre, Arctic Monkeys are playing football in the corridor, Maxïmo Park are on sound-check duties and We Are Scientists are hatching a plan to bring two huge tigers on stage with them later that night.
Actually, it’s more of a fantasy than a plan.
“We bought them seats on the plane though we should really start teaching them tricks,” jokes jet-lagged bassist Chris Cain of his fictional Bengal tigers. “They better really add to our live show. They need to start paying their way”.
Making their live show more compelling is not something the three piece need to fret about. We Are Scientists don’t require a huge cat to grab your attention. Powered feverishly by the rhythm section of Cain and drummer Michael Tapper, the Brooklyn based trio’s agitated rock and spiky melodies pack a thunderous punch. Though the dial is frequently turned to '11', the trio’s sound is edgy and funky enough to cram dancefloors with their jack-knife rhythms and high-voltage geek pop.
“I guess we’ve built our reputation on those shows,” offers singing guitarist Keith Murray, elated after a Hot Press photo shoot in the “cool” Garden Of Remembrance.
“Certainly in the UK, most people have got into us after seeing us live, which I guess is why this tour is great for us,” he says.
As exceptional a live act as We Are Scientists are, it’s their With Love And Squalor debut which has most brought them to prominence. Released to positive reaction last year, the debut was recorded off the group’s own back prior to their signing a major label deal with Virgin Records.
“Doing things that way certainly helped us make the album we wanted to make,” says Murray. “A label had no power over us to dictate how it was recorded. It was totally on our own terms.”
“Because the record was done, the label knew exactly what they were getting, while we didn’t have to worry about making an album under somebody else’s watch," adds Cain, a man who seems to have based his look on an ‘80s computer geek.
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