Even before The Wombats came on stage, the audience gave off an incredibly strong energy, complete with one fan dedicated enough to dress in a wombat onesie. It was an atmosphere only improved by the success of the support bands, an excitement that kept thriving through intrigue of the animated sleeping Wombat on the screen behind the stage, which opened its eyes occasionally. The lights went down and the audience screamed as the animated wombat opened its eyes for good, and the band walked onstage to open their performance with ‘Cheetah Tongue’.

It was intriguing to see such uniqueness and effort put into the construction of the concert, making each song its own individual experience

The animated wombat became an effective piece of recurring iconography that appeared in different forms as the backdrop to varying songs, whether this was a melting scoop of gelatinous delight rotating around the screen during ‘Ice-Cream’, or appearing as a flood of faces mimicking different emojis for ‘Emoticons’, to name just two of many appearances. As well as the wombat backdrop, the majority of songs performed featured their own animations, like the following of a car journey where lemons flew at the screen during ‘Lemon to a Knife Fight’. It was intriguing to see such uniqueness and effort put into the construction of the concert, making each song its own individual experience.

All three members of the band demonstrated incredible stage energy from the beginning of the gig that remained consistent throughout the concert, all the way to the last song. Murphey’s vocals were faultless, completing every trill and ad-lib on the recorded tracks, making it easy for the audience to sing along as one voice. He wasn’t afraid to mix things up either, milking the end of ‘Kill The Director’ (one of their more famed tracks) to draw out the audience’s cheers. As the front man, Murphey also kept a nice level of conversation with the audience, to the point of making the gig feel intimate, but without detracting from the music.

The two-song finale eventually came, and the concert upgraded to a new level. Introduced by a dramatic synthesizer solo, ‘Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)’ sent the audience back into full swing with the release of giant coloured balloons into the crowd, matched by fun polka dot lighting. Unfortunately, these burst much quicker than I assume was intended, but they were still enjoyed for the time they bounced around; hands flew up into the air with the hope of hitting one every time a balloon came close to an area of the crowd. The real finale, of course, was the much-anticipated ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’. Possibly the highlight of the gig, the end of this song came with a rather surreal appearance of ten or so men dressed in full wombat costumes, who came on stage and began to jump around. An elongated outro of an impressive drum solo courtesy of Dan Haggis allowed for singer and guitarist Matthew Murphey and bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen to join in the fun with the man-sized wombats, leaving the audience a difficult to forget faux-ending.

‘Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)’ sent the audience back into full swing with the release of giant coloured balloons into the crowd

Of course, the trio then returned for an encore, which, on this occasion, featured an interesting song selection. ‘Turn’ and ‘Greek Tragedy’ may have been predictable choices, but I doubt many in the audience thought that an acoustic version of ‘Lethal Combination’ would make an appearance. However, I’m glad that it did, as the stripping back of the song exposed Murphey’s voice and showed off his epitomised abilities.

Just before the final song of the encore, Murphey opened up and delivered a beautiful message about the power of music. It is the last thing to be fading from his grandfather’s mind, who, Murphey stated, has dementia. Using such a topic to end the concert on left the audience on a high, energised by the communal knowledge of the effect music has had on all of us. From lighting and staging to musical performance to audience interaction, The Wombats definitely know how to put on a show.