The Beat Surrender

Ok, what can I say? I’m sitting here, pen poised, desperately trying to think of something bad to say about ‘We are Scientists’ or ‘WAS’ as they’re more affectionately known, before I start writing my review, however nothing
is coming to mind. So, I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to write anything bad this time. Sorry about that everyone. I’m going to start by commenting on the venue.

The Brixton academy is great for gigs as it’s an indoor venue that looks and feels a bit like an outdoor one. So, in essence, it gives you that exciting outdoor feel you might get at a festival but it means it doesn’t get too cold (like when your outside at a festival and it starts to pour down with rain, and you’ve only got sandals on because you forgot to put your wellies on that morning.) It also means it doesn’t get too hot and stuffy like it might at a smaller venue.

If you haven’t heard of ‘WAS’ before then you’ve been missing out. Their style of music is on a par with Razorlight, Hot Hot Heat and The Killers. Their album is a fairly new one in my CD collection, and it has recently wormed its way up to the top of the pile and become my new favourite. So I was suitably excited to be seeing them live.

When we got to the venue, the first thing we noticed was that we were surrounded by young pups. The one benefit of this was that the bar was deserted and getting a drink was easy peasy (which doesn’t happen very often). After being asked to prove my age (which actually helped ease the depression I had begun to feel about it) we found a good position in the crowd and waited for the evening to enfold. The first support band (Roland Shanks) did attract my attention above the hub of people filtering into the place. They were energetic and they were enthusiastic, however, they failed to bring anything original to the stage. The second support (Hot Club de Paris) were slightly less predictable than the first and whilst they did try to bring some humour to the stage, quite frankly, I felt they tried too hard.

Finally the time had come for us to see the three guys who were most wanted there that evening. Their performance began, rather unexpectedly, with nobody on stage and just an intro song by Phil Collins which was a hit
from the word go. It was genius and a sure fire way to capture the appreciation of the audience from the very start. Why? Because everybody likes a bit of Phil don’t they? Whether they like to admit it or not. Keith, Chris and Michael then appeared on stage and made the last part of the song their own. From that point onwards I knew we were in for a good night. With no time to think about what had just happened it was straight into the second song (Cash Cow) which blew me away.

The play list for the night consisted of everything from their debut album (Love and Squalor) plus two new songs (Best Behaviour and Tonight Tonight). The most memorable song of the night was the unmistakable ‘Nobody Move Nobody Gets Hurt’ which ensured everyone in the room was singing and dancing along. It was raw, sweaty guitar belting at its best, and they did not fail to disappoint.

As was expected we were exposed to our fair share of edam enthused American humour in-between songs and what is great about the three of them is that they seem to have progressed from geek-dom to stardom pretty
successfully just by, not only making fantastic music, but by enjoying themselves and not taking themselves too seriously. What it is clear for all to see is that they love what they do. Surprisingly enough, the fourth star of the night, the moustache, did not really disturb me as much as I thought it might. To be honest, I’m not a tash fan, and I’m sure many would join me in saying that quite frankly, there is no need! However, I think I may nearly have been converted by the geeky charms of Chris Cain.

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