All I Really Can Tell is, I've Been Hit

I like We Are Scientists. That's why i went to see them last night. Even though all these stupid blah things happened like it was bitterly cold out, and my friend couldn't come, and the ticket was more expensive than advertised. Blah! i happened to arrive at Magnet in plenty of time; there was no support band, though, just a really bad mix cd playing while we were waiting for the band to come onstage. It was getting closer to an hour after the show was supposed to have started; each time another crap song came on, cries of outrage would erupt from the crowd. Finally a techie popped up onstage - i actually thought some fan had decided to get up there and start playing the drums to amuse us all, ha ha!

Everyone was cheering and clapping for them to come out and finally around 10pm the three dishevelled and hairy young men emerged from the side door to great whoops of delight. There was a big group of really excited (young) fans in the front rows and Chris Cain shook hands with each one and said hello, making sure to look them in the eye, from behind his googly glasses. He laid down the gauntlet and told us that the kids in Colon the night before were crazy and we'd have to work hard to live up to them. I think the crowd had no problem responding well to this challenge. People were fighting to get to the front and go crazy.



Their set was short and sweet. My favourites were definitely "It's a Hit" and "the Great Escape". They just make great music for jumping around to, even if the lyrics are a bit sad. They have such a big sound, like there's a secret guitar player and extra set of drums being played out the back or something. I was totally mesmerised by Chris Tapper's drumming all night. By the end of the show his sticks were totally splintered and his shirt was absolutely soaked through.














Too soon, Chris announced that the next song would be their last and apologised for We Are Scientists not having a vast repetoire. I wondered about old songs.. i was really hoping to hear "Selective Memory", but they didn't play anything old at all. I found out why from Michael Tapper - he appeared in the main bar after the show and I took the chance to give him a quick spanish inquisition. I was eager to talk because I was supposed to get an interview with them yesterday, but it didn't work out. Actually my first impulse was to thank him for a deadly show, I spent most of the time watching his fancy drumming.

This is going to be all "and then he said and then i said." sorry. ill try and come up with some good synonyms. i hope i remember everything. the gig finished right at 11, and since it was the Tuesday night rock bar, it was just in time to avail of free beer + tequila. Oh, i availed plenty.

Michael explained that their record company had arranged for them to spend the whole day doing interviews - i asked him how they stay sane, and he admitted to me that they don't. They just GO CRAZY! The most difficult part, he said, is being away from home. Especially for Chris, who is a dad. I asked if they were working on any new stuff at the moment, but there is no time for that with this crazy touring they are undertaking. What about other people's music? The Liars. They are his favourite band, listening to them alot.

We talked of course, about that night's show. The band felt bad that the crowd waited so expectantly for an encore and never got one. Once they had finished playing and were gone backstage, they could hear everyone clapping and hollering for more..The crowd didn't give up because the crap mix CD didn't kick in and the lights stayed down. The band was backstage feeling bad and wishing the soundsystem would come on so we'd realise there would be no encore. "You don't do encores?".."We just don't have that many songs." "What about Selective Memory?!!" "We only play new songs..i.e from the album or b-sides." Aha. Not only do they not really even like that song, it's the song which Michael himself dislikes the most. !!! Er, I've been totally addicted to it for the past age. (it's really good!)

So there we were, standing on the edge of the dancefloor. An Arctic Monkeys song came on as we were talking. Michael was all closing his eyes and singing along. Apparently they had an awesome time on the NME tour with them, the W.A.S boys are quite sad now that it's over. He related the awesome experience of witnessing the thousands of fans singing along to all the words of "I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor" - Alex Turner just stopped to let them take over. Ok, i know everyone sings along at concerts, it sounded better when he explained it. On the W.A.S tour blog there's also a funny account of one of the boys going crowd surfing during the Monkeys show. I love hearing stuff like that. The band is now on their Continental Clampdown Tour, "during which we take a closer look at this 'Europe'." When they were in Berlin last, they played Rosi's. Michael was like, "i loved that place. i want to be there right now. are they partying there?" [Yes. 'was like' is totally a good synonym.] He informed me that they will be playing a gig in Dublin in April. They'll be somewhere else in this 'Europe', this gig is an extra stop-over, to play in Whelans. That will be special! I'd love to see them play there. I might try and make it.



What else? I asked about his drumming. At Michael's school they had a good "band" programme; basically each kid had to pick out an instrument. Because his surname was Tapper, he picked the drums. Ha. Any tips for an aspiring drummist? "Learn all the beats to our songs." The man is a demon on the batterie. [that is not red-eye from my camera, you know.] He is a man, too. "I'm older than I look." "28?" "Yep." He let me know that as they have a day off today, him and Chris planned to go to their record company's office and get someone to show them around. When i heard him say the office is in Kreuzberg, I was happy. That's my hood. I was even happier when he said, "I want to move to Kreuzberg. I'm gonna look for a place to live tomorrow. No just kidding. No but I really want to live there. It's the coolest place." Maybe he was just pulling my leg. Oh god. Flashback. I totally showed him the photographs I took. He was very polite and said, "awesome!..ah, it was smoky!" I was like, "yeh. and your techie dude was sitting right under the smoke machine for the whole show!...eh, why was he huddled in a corner onstage for the whole show?" Never seen that before, thought it was a bit mad. "Cos he's our only techie. we need him." I guess Magnet is just too small, there are no side wings. You can just about see him in one of my "awesome!" photographs. Poor chap.

Michael was very nice and charming and interesting and easy to talk to and though I was nervous i think it was a nice little exchange on the whole, helped along the way undoubtedly by my free beer + tequila sodden braincells. I hope i got everything right..another deadly gig. Woo!