Scams at Berlin Independent Night

By the time I got to Comet Club the place was filling up. Scams were already getting ready on stage and people began to file into the room with their fresh drinks. Only a hand full of people had seen or head Scams before, me being one of them.

Scams only had 30 minutes to play which is about the only bad thing I can say about their set. The setlist was a mixture of old and new songs. I know it is always difficult to listen to new songs a concerts but I guess for most people there all of their songs were new. I was astonished by how well the reception by the audience was. I’m certain Scams got a lot more fans that night!

One of their new songs, which is called Waiting, sounded a lot more serious than their previous ones. It starts out rather slow and culminates in a crescendo that reminded me of The Who. At some point, I was expecting the band to trash their instruments right there on stage but then it dawned on me that they probably can’t afford to do that just yet. Well, maybe in a year or so.

Their new drummer Chris did an impressive job. Drumming to Scams songs is probably hard enough as it is but he also had to trigger a few playback sounds while doing so. Apparently, there will be some keyboarding on the next Scams album.

Unfortunately, they crossed out Youngblood from the setlist. Andy told me that they got a little too excited the day before when they played at the Reeperbahn festival in Hamburg so that the setlist was too long. Too bad they chose not to play this one, it’s one of my favourites. Better luck next time.

Their last song, which was also a new song called Compliments, was a blast. The combination of lead and backing vocals was amazing and I was impressed how well they managed to pull this off live (I wish I knew the lyrics). Andy has the same vocal range on stage as on the record which is not true for most bands. All in all, Scams are a fantastic live band and I can’t wait to seem them again.

Chances are Scams will be back in Germany in November. I for my part cannot wait to hear more old and new songs!

Scams are now back in Hamburg to finish recording their second album.