[Music] We Are Scientists

It's been a long time since I had the opportunity to go to a decent gig. Almost five years in fact; the last one was Feeder at the Warwick University Student's Union in 2008! St Andrews isn't exactly blessed with decent opportunities, and I never knew what was going on in Dundee. Edinburgh and Glasgow weren't even worth looking at until I had a car. But now I do, and several months ago my friend at work asked if I fancied going to see "We Are Scientists" in Glasgow. It seemed like ages away but gradually snuck up on us, and yesterday the two of us made the trip across Scotland to go see the band.

We Are Scientists on stage at the Oran Mor, Glasgow. It was an awesome gig. (Credit: David Brown)

Doors opened at 7pm, which we thought was rather early. Until we got there and noticed that the first of the two support bands was on at 7:15, and the gig ended at 10:15! Talk about an early finish, but at least it meant that the long drive home didn't have us back too late.

The first support act were "The Yawns". The music was decent enough, but the singer really spoiled the set. He looked, acted, and sounded really disinterested by the whole thing, was drinking throughout,  and didn't really work the crowd much (although he did make some rather odd attempts at humour). I'll be honest, he seemed to be on something. His singing also wasn't amazing, but it was serviceable, and the rest of the band seemed quite good. Shame really.

The Yawns. This was about as animated as they got. (Credit: David Brown)

The second support act were "Paws", and they were pretty awesome. Pretty heavy rock, with a bit of metal thrown in, and a hell of a lot of energy. They were all over the stage, jumping up and down, and really getting the crowd going. It was infectious. It helped that they were very good, and although I found their set getting a bit repetitive towards the end owing to the limited vocal range of the singer, I really enjoyed their set. I think I'll be checking out their work.

The bassist from Paws. He was bouncing around like a man possessed. Classic rock poses were in abundance! (Credit: David Brown)

Then, the main act. My friend had been to see "We Are Scientists" before, many years ago in Leeds. She'd told me they were pretty awesome on stage, but I wasn't really sure what to expect. It turned out that she was right. In between songs it was almost like a stand-up comedy gig, with jokes coming thick and fast, from both the front man and the bassist. Even the drummer was chiming in at points!

I only knew a couple of their biggest songs, which they played of course, but the whole set was really well put together, and flew past. I will definitely be trying to get hold of their back catalogue; the music was brilliant, and just the kind of rock that I love, but which I've kind of fallen out of listening to.

We Are Scientists were awesome. Very funny, and great, great music. (Credit: David Brown)

All-in-all it was an awesome night, and made me remember how much I enjoyed gigs. There is a  downside to the story though: I seem to have damaged my hearing this time around. I think it was the encore that did it, with the 15 minutes basically non-stop music. I felt at the time that something was wrong, and sadly I seem to have acquired tinnitus in my right-ear. I'm pretty annoyed at myself after I took care at Le Mans this year, and should have taken ear plugs with me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will gradually disappear like it usually does, but I'm not hopeful. It's never lasted to the next morning before, and doesn't seem to be diminishing. Oh well, at least it's just the one ear I suppose.

The song that they ended the entire gig with.