Gig Review: Taking a Nostalgia Trip with The Wombats

(Review also published in ET)

On the 18th of November 2018, indie-pop group The Wombats graced us with a stunning performance at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, singing through 15 years worth of moody love songs and making us all relate too hard.

The Wombats, a three-man group from Liverpool, are back in Australia touring their new album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, which was released in February this year. The fun and energetic trio put on an enthusiastic show, incorporating intricate lighting, animated wombat heads, cheerleaders, colourful balloons, and their mascot Steve the Red Squirrel.

I doubt that anyone with a Triple-J-esque taste in music has not been through a Wombats phase. I went through mine when I was fourteen. I had their entire discography from that era illegally downloaded onto my iPod Nano. I would listen to the albums A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation and This Modern Glitch on my brisk and angsty walks to school every morning and afternoon, taking in every lyric, sound tracking my youth with songs full of heartbreak, pessimism, and pop-culture references.

Both The Wombats and their opener Eves Karydas played Splendour in the Grass and Spin Off Festival earlier in the year. Unsurprisingly, the two can still fill arenas despite their frequent Australian presence. Karydas opened up the night for The Wombats on Sunday, getting everyone on their feet and singing all the songs she’s had on Triple-J’s daily rotation, which apparently is a lot. ‘Damn Loyal’, ‘Couch’ and ‘Further Than The Planes Fly’ are songs easily recognisable due to her swirly high vocals and techno backing beats. Fans of Cub Sport, Amy Shark, and Vera Blue can find comfort in Eves’ incredible vocal range and fun pop sounds. Her stage presence could only be described as cute, her twirls and little knee bops making her a captivating artist to watch.

The Wombats played a whopping 19 song set starting with guitar-driven ‘Cheetah Tongue’ and bouncy ‘Give Me A Try’, giving us a taste of The Wombats’ brand – fun, romantic, and cheeky. Then we were thrown straight into a blast from the past with ‘1996’; this track got the oldies dancing along to the synth-filled, sentimental ode to young love.

The lights fade to black after each song, providing a solid transition between different eras of their music and building anticipation. Speaking of blackness, ‘Black Flamingo’ was next on the line up, a bendy guitar track with an unexpected harmonic breakdown.

Lead singer Matthew Murphy introduces the next song by admitting it’s the band’s “third time playing this song live” before launching into ‘Ice Cream’, back-dropped by an intoxicating swirl of animated wombat heads in ice cream cones. It certainly didn’t seem like only the third time, as the group faultlessly swaggered their way through the heavy riff-filled track.

We then got a quick change of tone with another track from This Modern Glitch for the night in the form of ‘Techno Fan’. The song was accompanied by plenty of excited cheers from the crowd, jumping and singing along to the lines “Just shut up and move with me, move with me, or, or get out of my face” at the top of their lungs. The electronic synths figuratively painting a picture of a night out on the town in East London.

Following a couple of songs from their newest release, Murphy promised to present a prize to anyone who could guess the next song based on the drum beat. A man in the front row screamed out “YOUR BODY IS A WEAPON” and got a complimentary Gatorade, and a figurative dose of ‘pride’ for his correct guess.

Murphy introduced his next song with an anecdote about one of his two dogs. “One’s lovely, the other ones a bitch,” he chuckled. “She’s on 60 milligrams of Prozac, which is quite a lot for a dog, the first line in this next song is about that…” ‘Bee-Sting’ begins with the line in question: “Jumping like a dog on Prozac and fishing with dynamite”, a catchy cut from their latest album.
The band would finally throw back to their first album, A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation with ‘Moving To New York’, launching the crowd into a craze. It’s a fast-paced indie anthem about curing insomnia by moving to a different time zone accompanied by frantic drums and bass.

During ‘Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)’ The Wombats’ roadies threw big multi-coloured balloons out into the crowd, reenergising fans as the show was coming to an end. Chunky bass and funky disco dance beats had everybody jumping around, punching balloons back into the air and onto the stage only for them to be kicked back at them by Murphy himself – something which he would later apologise for profusely after pelting the front row a couple of times.

‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’ saw the crowd at its most electric. The band brought big fuzzy wombat mascots onto the stage along with cheerleaders who helped choreograph the audience into a frenzy. The outro was extended with both Murphy and the bassist coming to the very front of the stage to join the crowd in chanting “We’re so happy, so happy, so happy…” and we truly were so happy, ending the set on a high note.

After a short break Murphy returned to the stage to perform a solo acoustic version of ‘Lethal Combination’ from their latest album. “Baby, let’s go get blind tonight, I’ll hold your hair back and you’ll hold mine,” he sang, a blunt and somewhat grotesque attempt at a love song – typical Wombats.

To finish the show, they played a couple of their most popular songs from their latest two albums, ‘Turn’ and ‘Greek Tragedy’, brought the entertaining night to an end. Overall, The Wombats play a tight show full of all the catchy hooks, breakdowns, and lyrics that you’d expect from such a beloved band. If you’re like me and also went through an angsty Wombats phase and are looking to relive your teenage years, I highly recommend you do.