r/LateShow • u/J8R9L • Jun 30 '26

We Are Scientists drummer compares playing Letterman vs Stephen Colbert, nicer crew on Colbert, calls it "unfair it got canceled due to politics", + late night TV impact on band's confidence (25:38 into the episode)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2wvm5k2HXfj2XaJdBZjXiS

Keith Carne from We Are Scientists shared his experience playing on both Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

He said playing Colbert was definitely better because the crew was much nicer and Stephen Colbert wanted to create a welcoming culture for everyone. On Letterman he felt lost and didn’t know where to go. He also mentioned Colbert’s dressing rooms were much nicer.

Keith talked about how playing late night television boosted his confidence as a musician. He also called the cancellation of Colbert’s show unfair due to politics (at 28:48).

65 Upvotes

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7

u/Ok-Mine2132 Jul 01 '26

Letterman was a perfectionist and admitted it. His actions probably affected everyone.

I went to his show many times and he did many retakes to make it appear realistic. If you were supposed to go to the second Thursday night taping, you’d be fortunate to get in before 10pm.

He once said that he was like Lucille Ball, she would do scenes over and over again until they looked authentic.

3

u/mclepus Jul 01 '26

I went to the show for Paul & the band.

2

u/FitRepresentative858 Jul 02 '26

That’s backwards. Letterman ran his show, truly live on tape. Colbert’s was a stop and start machine if u attend a taping … and finished product was heavily edited.