The Little Ones, 1990s Middle East October 13th 2007

The Little Ones from LA in CA, bright poppy and very listenable. I cant figure out what the ethnic danceability exactly is. But when you listen to these guys you smile and it gets a little difficult to stop moving. During the set they asked about who was from certain areas, their inclusion of Philippines suggest that is where Ed and Brian (brothers) are Filipinos. They played mostly new songs finishing with Lovers Who Uncover. Talking to Ian the guitarist at the merch table (nice blue T-shirt for females by the way but it is way small made) we learnt that the album is not only written it is recorded mixed and everything and that the record label is sitting on it until January/February of next year. We also found out it is going to be full of brand new songs - yeah!.
So the 1990s, if you pick up cookies and listen to it you basically get the same effect as sitting down and eating a whole packet of cookies. The saccharine sweetness starts to get to you and you feel less than enthused. I had the chance to speak to Jackie at the merch table before anything started. If you can identify and speak to the band intelligently about the music before they go on stage when they are the support band they tend to appreciate it a lot. Jackie is a very down to earth personable drunken Glaswegian musician and our conversation about their music, music generally and music in Scotland was fun and I appreciated Jackie taking the time.

Michael's drums were set up so close to the front of the stage I could have easily touched the bass drum's skin without too much effort. I have a picture of the fact that Michael keeps his glasses on top of the bass drum while he plays which I thought was amusing. Then Jackie comes out and set up his guitar in about 30 seconds flat. This is a guy that has been playing for years and years and his experience shows in little points like this.

So they came out and started going through their tracks but these are not the saccharine instances found on the album, instead Jackie added depth and substance by playing the guitar like a madman. His guitar solos and riffs made this great. He adjusted a song to add a chorus from Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner song BUT this was totally lost on almost all of the audience. He then mentioned Jonathan Richman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Richman) amazed nobody was recognizing one of Boston's legendary musicians. Of course he asked if anyone knew about him and of course we yelled yes.
but I guess is because we are ancient.
This was so much fun, if you listen to the album and are unimpressed can I suggest you still go and see them live you may change your mind and totally enjoy the show despite any of your preconceptions. BTW they played a new song called The box, I recorded this on the camera and I need to cut it and hopefully make an mp3 available for a bit. The box live
Standard disclaimer if anyone has any issues with this being made available please just let me know.



We stayed for Voxtrot but went to the back got a beer and chilled out. I still can't exactly see what folks love in this band. Boston audiences showed their disdain as normal as some folks were more interested in watching the baseball than any band.

As we left we saw Michael from 1990s and had a quick chat, again a stellar guy.

Addenum
check out this NME story from CMJ http://www.nme.com/news/we-are-scientists/31873
"I'm not going to lie anymore, everyone thinks we're so soft and fuzzy but we've been known to drink our rider before sound check" singer Ed Reyes says "I am going to go to rehab soon. I've been drinking a lot, I've been doing a lot of... drinking. We're going to drink (We Are Scientists) under the table I think."
And Moreno says there will be more than just drinking on tour
"We're going to have a dance-off party. We're from Southern California so we're into a more hip-hop vibe. We're Filipino, we could out-dance any white dude. We're brown! It's in our genes!"
Such Party Guys!