We Are Scientists + The Departure @ Leeds Uni

Written by Nicki Tibballs | Thursday, November 15, 2007 |

Two years ago, The Departure were hailed as Northampton’s answer to The Killers. Today, it’s clear that they haven’t spent the last couple of years listening to Springsteen, unlike their Las Vegas counterparts. Their set is made up of mainly new songs, which fit in well with previous singles ‘Be My Enemy’ and ‘All Mapped Out’. They may not have changed their sound a great deal, but the new tracks do sound bolder and more confident. The band also know the best way to win over a room full of student music fans - handing out free t-shirts.

We Are Scientists don’t need to give away merch to gain new fans - they have enough excellent tunes to do that for them. This is the third show they’ve played at Leeds Met in the last 18 months, and most people are aware that they could easily have put on their sell-out show at Leeds University’s bigger Refectory. The band are all smiles as they arrive onstage, and launch into an ecstatically-received ‘Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt’. This is followed by ‘This Scene Is Dead’, possibly the best track from debut album ‘With Love And Squalor’, and ‘Inaction’. Tonight’s performance clearly hasn’t being hampered by last week’s departure of drummer Michael Tapper, and his temporary replacement, Adam Aaronon, is equally talented. Relative newcomer to the band, Max Hart, adds a little more edge to the songs with additional guitar and keyboards.

The Brooklyn-based band are as famous for their comedic onstage banter as their songs, although tonight they seem more intent on making the crowd love the new tracks than making them laugh. This is in no way a bad thing. ‘Impatience’ keeps the crowd dancing and by the end of ‘Let’s See It’, a large proportion of the crowd is joining in with the ‘oh oh oh’ chorus. Album tracks ‘Can’t Lose’ and ‘Callbacks’ precede another new song (we get seven in total from the as-yet-unnamed new album, due out in March) called ‘Lethal Enforcer’ which has a strangely seductive feel to it and definitely shows how the band have matured as songwriters over the last couple of years.

Crowd favourite ‘The Great Escape’ sees the entire room go mental and fans wait impatiently for the encore. No comedy cover versions this time, we get another new song, ‘Dinosaur’ and ‘Cash Cow’. The new tracks prove that We Are Scientists are more than just funny guys who also managed to write some pretty good tunes - they’re talented musicians who can also be pretty damn funny.

We Are Scientists + The Departure
Leeds Metropolitan University, Thursday 8th November 2007

www.wearescientists.com
www.myspace.com/wearescientists

Related Posts

• We Are Scientists - 18/04/08
• Tapper Quits Ahead Of We Are Scientists UK Tour
• Interview - We Are Scientists

Post A Comment