Music Editor Bas Bevan reviews The Wombats performance at the O2 Academy and highlights how the band know exactly how to give their audience what they want and create an incredibly fun atmosphere
With their new EP Is This What It Feels Like To Feel Like This? due to be released in November and off the back of their first UK number one album Fix Yourself, Not The World coming out in January, The Wombats came to the O2 Academy in Birmingham for a colourful and fun filled performance from a band who are at their best and clearly know what they are best at.
The Wombats…are at their best and clearly know what they are best at.
The support act was fellow Scousers STONE who’s hard hitting sound was a bit of a departure from the style of The Wombats. The band, who began to achieve mainstream success during lockdown, delivered explosive punk songs full of grit and passion and seemed to absolutely relish being in front of the crowd. They skilfully captured the spirit of the genre creating a huge, saturated wall of noise, cut through by the snarl impressively commanding and menacing frontman Finlay Power (the son of John Power from renowned Liverpool bands Cast and The La’s).
In a change of mood but not in energy, The Wombats came on stage to infectious cheers before bursting into one of their hit songs from their first record ‘Moving To New York’ which sent the youthful crowd mad, even though it was released in 2007. Their next track was the opener from their newest record ‘Flip Me Upside Down’ which showed how their music has kept its identity throughout their career, with its crazy chorus, changes in pace and amusing lyrics. The song also highlighted the show’s production with red, blue and green light-up columns that made the stage look like a Nintendo 64 game.
…The Wombats have given their fans everything that they want on every album while still exploring new ideas and sounds.
Their shows this year have been called the All The Hits! Tour which is definitely an appropriate title as the performance was a journey through the band’s whole career and perfectly showed off the brilliance and consistency of their discography. They gave the hungry crowd a generous 20 song setlist that was a collection of all of the fan favourites.
The crowd went equally crazy for ‘Techno Fan’ from their second record This Modern Glitch, ‘Pink Lemonade’ from 2015’s Glitterbug and ‘If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You’ which was on their latest album, showing how The Wombats have given their fans everything that they want on every album while still exploring new ideas and sounds.
It was obvious to see which of the band’s songs were the most loved from the receptions they received. As well as the opener ‘Moving To New York’, ‘Kill The Director’, ‘Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)’, ‘Greek Tragedy’ and ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’ got frenzied reactions with everyone wildly leaping around and eagerly waiting to scream the first lines like ‘I’ve met someone that makes me feel seasick’ and ‘I’m back in Liverpool and everything seems the same’. ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’, which is considered to be one of their archetypal songs, also perfectly summed up the feeling and fun of the whole show with the band’s excitable playing, chaotic lighting and an army of wombats dancing around the stage.
The two songs that have been released from their upcoming EP were extremely good live even though it was only the fourth time they had been played. The silky guitar riff and the lively chorus and bridge parts of ‘Is This What It Feels Like To Feel Like This?’ really stood out and the contrast between the piercing bends and stodgy bass, and Matthew Murphy’s more controlled vocals in ‘I Think My Mind Has Made Its Mind Up’ was even more engaging and enjoyable in person.
Last month bass player Tord Øverland Knudsen told me how ‘the essence of The Wombats’ is the disparity between the deeper messages and the upbeat music, and how they like ‘making people dance to a really dark lyric’. This intriguing concept was fully on show with the audience euphorically singing along to songs like ‘Everything I Love Is Going To Die’ or even ‘Lemon To A Knife Fight’ which is about an argument that Murphy had with his wife. This perfectly illustrates the intelligence of The Wombats and how their sense of humour and musical ability allows them to sing about difficult topics and tricky situations in a way that provokes a response that is completely the opposite of what you would expect.
They clearly have perfected their live performances knowing exactly which songs people want to hear, how to deliver them and when to let the crowd sing…
The Wombats gave an unsurprisingly superb performance given their musical talent. All of the songs sounded exactly like the studio versions which was even more impressive given how the band only has three members and did not use any touring musicians. Instead they played all the instruments themselves like the keyboard parts in ‘Jump Into The Fog’ and ‘Tokyo’. They clearly have perfected their live performances knowing exactly which songs people want to hear, how to deliver them and when to let the crowd sing, whilst still playing a great selection of newer tracks.
The atmosphere was incredibly fun and enjoyable thanks both to the brilliance of the songs and how everyone in the crowd seemed to know and get excited for every one of them. The production was also excellent with chaotic multi-coloured lights, the light-up columns on the stage, pyrotechnics and paper hearts being shot into the air during the final track ‘Turn’. The relationship between the band and the audience was really strong, especially in the smaller setting compared to the arenas they played on their first UK tour this year. The fantastic songs and musicianship, joyous atmosphere, and striking but not overpowering visual effects, made the show impossible not to smile at and extremely special.
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