Words by Isaac Vernon
It’s always a treat to visit Boiler Shop, a solid venue that always seems to book interesting acts, like We Are Scientists.
They’ve hit the road to celebrate their seminal album, ‘With Love & Squalor’, on its anniversary two decades later. Thinking back to 2006, it’s an achievement in itself that they still made an impact despite all the great “guitar music” released around that time. The fact that they can tour this album in 2026 and fill venues shows they have staying power, and it was evident at this show.
The gig was billed as the album played in full, so opening with a sprinkling of other songs surprised me (luckily, in a good way). In this prelude to the main event, the second song, ‘Nice Guys’ from 2010’s Barbara, was an early highlight that reminded me of Angles-era Strokes and gave us some early sing-along moments, easy to pick up on the spot.
Five songs in, we were treated to the first track from With Love & Squalor and arguably their biggest hit, ‘Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt’. An indie-nightclub cult classic, its opening riff immediately grabbed the crowd and surely awakened some twenty-year-old memories in a lot of the audience.
From then on the show truly started, with the album played not only in full but in order, unlike some other anniversary tours I’ve been to (looking at you, Bloc Party, for playing Silent Alarm backwards…).
Anniversary tours can be hit or miss for me. Some come across as a cash grab, like when a band plays a tight 45 minutes and promptly disappears. This one felt more like a celebration. A full 22-song set, played by a band who didn’t seem tired of “the old stuff”, sold me on their commitment to doing the record justice.
In front of their glittering backdrop, the Americans Chris Cain and Keith Murray (who else assumed they were British?) kept cracking jokes with each other between songs, though some felt like inside jokes we weren’t privy to. One was an on-the-spot “reveal” of a joke demo called “Whippets Doing Whip-Its”, which got a few laughs once an improvised rendition was played for a few bars. It was hard to tell whether their inability to remember the name of the River Tyne was a bit, but if it was, I don’t think it landed.
Mid-set came another stand-out single, “The Great Escape”. The crowd began bouncing and echoing every word back. It’s a timeless tune with a pretty great, memorable guitar solo and probably my favourite song of the set. The trio on stage worked really well together, and I was impressed with how the big sound of the record translated with only the three of them. Even more impressive was the human tower of piggybackers that appeared during the song, lasting all of ten seconds.
Not quite finished once the album was played through, the lads returned to deliver more hits in their encore. They finished with “After Hours”. I thought the live version sounded a bit heavier than the studio rendition, which consists of acoustic guitar paired with pretty, twinkling keys. However the rawer sound made it a more impactful and euphoric ending. This nostalgic song was a great bookend for the gig, with fitting lyrics like the line “This night is winding down” and especially the “Say that you’ll stay” chorus feeling like a thank you to everyone there for sticking around to see them twenty years on. Maybe they hope we’ll stick with them for another twenty and see this show again. I would.
