Mounted steer horns decorate the walls of The Barrel House, home of Pereira & O'Dell—a new ad agency that opened last May. A red kerosene lantern and a row of hanging frying pans loom above the bar. Upstairs, the bookshelves offer titles like Western Badmen and Famous Sheriffs & Western Outlaws alongside Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Red Headed Stranger on vinyl. The Barrel House, says Jennifer Colton, principal of Flashpoint public relations, "will pick up where 111 Minna and others leave off, blending  San Francisco gallery intimacy with a touch of Mad Men."

You’d think we’d be in the heart of Texas or some miner town, but down the cast iron staircase, indie-rock outfit We Are Scientists play a private show to an invite-only list of San Francisco ad-firm folks and their friends. The setting may not match the music or the crowd, but brilliance often only becomes apparent in contrast.

Though downright brilliance may have been absent from the set, We Are Scientists, who formed in Berkeley in 1999 before relocating to New York in 2001, banged out a short, but impressively tight nine-song set.

We Are Scientists—part of the “mustaches are cool" camp—live up to their indie-as-I-wanna-be stereotype, but should garner praise for their witty stage banter and well-polished indie-dance-rock grooves.

After the show, the band’s equipment cases form a pile on stage. They are marked with “W A S” in spray paint. With only two full-length albums to date, but a growing fan base, it seems most likely that We Are Scientists “WILL BE.”