with Chew Lips & The Whigs
Oxford Academy
25.06.2010
We Are Scientists must be kicking themselves slightly. Despite being a great marketing tool around their album release, that World Cup unofficial theme song they so craftily recorded is in danger of becoming the bane of their lives. As the band gear up for their Glastonbury slot by playing to a sold-out Academy in Oxford, the cries from the audience for the band to play ‘Goal! England!’ are unrelenting.
The band toy with the crowd, refusing to give in and standing by a solid set of material spanning their past three albums. You can’t deny the genius of tracks like ‘Nice Guys’, ‘Cash Cow’ and ‘Nobody Move’ and the sweaty crowd amassed tonight (including Gavin and Stacey’s Matthew Horne) are clearly in agreement of this fact as they sing along heartily and laugh along at the band’s jokes. That’s the strange (but undoubtedly brilliant) thing about We Are Scientists. The band write all these earnest songs about life and love, yet in between the rattling off of hits on stage, they joke around like nobody’s business. It’s always funny, as long as you can hear what’s going on. And that’s where they come unstuck slightly as, to some people in the crowd, the words get lost and the band lose the rapt attention of everyone present after a while of rambling between songs.
The band’s set tonight is rounded off nicely by a rousing rendition of ‘After Hours’ that is certainly apt considering the enthusiasm of the crowd tonight and it really makes everyone feel a part of what’s going on as several members of the other bands who played tonight take to the stage to sing along. We thought it was all over but an encore includes the rather excellent ‘Cashcow’ and no one is left doubting that We Are Scientists have given it their all under disgustingly sweaty conditions – they even joke sarcastically about it being chilly on-stage and requiring a hot chocolate to warm up.
Winegums