BEWARE! the Other Head of Science

“Don’t even think about asking who the original head of science is or why you shouldn’t exercise caution around him/her. Just dance. Beware!’s spazzy synth-pop is like a can of root beer, filled with Pop Rocks, poured down the pants of a hyperactive seventh grader. Yeah.” - Metroland

Beware! the Other Head of Science took the Townsend Park Stage of LarkFest, almost blithely unaware of the festivities occurring simultaneously on Lark Street. Beware! were in their own adjacent universe. Illustrating this point, the gang of six wore matching, dept. of public works-orange t-shirts hand-stenciled with the words, “Larp Fest 09.”

Proud purveyors of electro-pop, Beware’s ploy to steal your retinas was just as quickly followed by a compelling and successful attempt to steal all ears. The frenetic band exploded with energy, confetti and music. The set was littered with clever numbers like “Monster Song” about Lake Champlain’s Champ and “Winter Coats” (slang for beards).

Beware! is led by a pair of guitar/keyboard wielding front-men, the ever-shrinking Richard Nolan Jr. and Matt “Terd” Ferguson, who are driven by the dead on whack attack of drummer Seth Tillinghast.

One can’t help but be drawn in by fiery redhead, Matt Ferguson whose substantial stage presence brings to mind the likes of Joe Strummer, combined with a vocal quality and a conviction of Jello Biafra. Ferguson, as if unsatisfied with the confines of the stage, at one point took to the crowd in the street with bull-horn in hand . When the confetti had cleared and the bull-horn was silent, Beware! the Other Head of Science may have also stolen the hearts and won over the minds of the enthusiastic crowd.

Review and photographs by Matt Mac Haffie - Nippertown

Having the world’s only un-Googleable band name just scratches the surface of !!!’s aversion to publicity. Having booked a stealth show only two weeks before, and with nary any promotion, !!! (you can call them any three syllables of like kind) set up a merch table—without any merch. This being a Friday night, people had dancing, not commerce, on their minds. So it was that a sizable audience of club kids, indie rockers and a few young punks took to moving and sweating to the funky beats made by the Chk Chk Chk-ers. The incongruity of six rather dour-looking, 30-something white guys playing dance music (and playing it so damn well) was part of the fun.

“We’re gonna play some new songs for you—that’s what excites us right now,” vocalist Nic Offer unapologetically intoned, Justin van der Volgen making like Larry Graham with broader-than-Broadway, subterranean bass grooves on the otherwise nondescript new tunes. Everyone in the crowd seemed to be waiting for that one song they really, really liked, and !!! tried to oblige by sprinkling in the more melodic offerings from 2007’s excellent Myth Takes. During their ‘hit,’ “Must be the Moon,” Offer jolted the crowd out of their dance trance by jumping into the audience, gyrating amiably in the face of a gent in a fedora who had offered to take the mic away from Offer so he could move the crowd himself. (Offer won the dance-off.) “All My Heroes are Weirdos” earned the band’s dance-punk tag, while one new song (no song names were given) featured an ear-grabbing highlife riff from the band’s secret weapon, guitarist Mario Andreoni.

After exactly an hour, Offer said, “Thank you, that’s all we know!” and the band left the dance-hungry crowd in coitus interruptus. A call for an encore left no response, leaving some with bruised feelings—it was, after all, just 11 PM on a Friday night. With no merch and no encore, and an enjoyable but quick hour of music, the inscrutable !!! left one feeling as semi-satisfied as a one-night stand.

Local band Beware! the Other Head of Science were just about the perfect opener, their energetic take on dance-punk landing them closer to the hardcore side of the fence at times. They also have a couple of songs melodic and catchy enough to get them on the radio, accessible in a screechy Isaac Brock sort of way—and unlike the headliners, Beware! seemed intent on giving the crowd more than their money’s worth. - Metroland

Last year, we described Beware!’s sound as like a can of root beer filled with Pop Rocks, poured down the pants of a 7th grader, but with this year’s debut Big American Godzilla Party it’s clear they’re really more like said 7th grader let loose on Tokyo. - Metroland

Beware! The Other Head Of Science have two important things going for them:

1. A cool band name and even better track titles, like "Teddy Roosevelt's Modded Mac Book Pro" and "How We Stole Jack White's Tesla Coil."

2. An album cover that includes Boba Fett dressed as a drifter, Catwoman, a moth-like superhero, and a classic Doctor Who-ish robot with a popcorn tub for a head.

Song topics are likewise ridiculous but loveable. On "Winter Coats," B!TOHOS extol the virtues of beards: "For every boy who wants to look grizzly, there's a girl who wants to get busy." "Champ" is an ode to the Lake Champlain Monster. There's definitely plenty of kitsch value here.

Sonically, these New Yorkers are akin to the Ultimate Power Duo, or perhaps The Wet Secrets with some additional synth weight. On "Front Row Seats For The Great Beast," they're dead ringers for The Lovely Feathers. Much of this album would make a good soundtrack to modern, irreverent sci-fi action movies like Tank Girl.

Big American Godzilla Party is often puzzling and over-the-top, but it gets significantly more fun with successive listens. - Chart Attack