“On the count of three, everyone yell ‘Bollocks’!”… That’s the kind of call and response you’ll get at a Wombats gig, a band who you can tell from the above quote aren’t actually Australian like their name deceptively might suggest. These Liverpool born and bred, NME hyped wonder-kids are down under to feature at the Playground Weekender Festival in Sydney and managed to sell out all their sideshows along the way (mind you, if you check out their gig listings on myspace they’re selling shows out all over the globe). The Hi Fi hosted the trio in their first show ever down under and despite the rather lacking duration of their set, they made sure their hyped status was lived up to.
The marsupial loving pop rockers were in the right mood for a celebration from opener ‘Lost In The Post’ all the way to the end of their encore. And as their name would reveal, their liking to things Australian meant that they had every right to celebrate their first performance here. Despite claiming that they were suffering from massive jetlag, and that they’d been sleeping prior to coming out, the Wombats didn’t relent in omitting the biggest stage energy possible. And if the band was excited then the crowd was ecstatic – with the capacity either bouncing in the moshpit or bobbing along behind and singing along.
The “Go Go Go” of ‘Lost In The Post’ was yelled fervently by the whole venue, as was the “Bridget Jones” of ‘Kill The Director’ and “Laura” of ‘Party In The Forest’, proving only too well that the Wombats’ tracks are as crowd friendly as they could possibly come. Whilst the basic lyricism aided in the communion of band and fans, frenetic frontman Matthew Murphy didn’t relent in his encouragement and was constantly running centre stage (with his big frizz of a haircut flying all over the place) to thrust his arms in the air and gain a louder response. Murphy didn’t hesitate in bluntly stating that he wanted more from the crowd as he introduced ‘Moving To New York’ and the obliging mass jumped and sung – almost drowning out the band’s volume.
The Wombats’ live show seemed at times as much a comedy routine as it did a rock concert, with constant banter between members causing a few laughs. The group’s stuffed mascot wombat, Cherub, sat in the background as Murphy opted to share his wombat trivia – they are the only marsupial with a bone in their privates – before going on to make jokes that the band would make it their goal to discover an impotent wombat who’d otherwise just be “flopping it in there”. Moreover, simple one liners to explain how weird they felt whilst playing in Australia – such as “we’re upside down to where we were born” – caused plenty of grins, though people could have simply been amused by the boys massively thick Liverpool accents and dorky look.
The trio announced after only 40 minutes that their last song was up, and the disappointed sighs of the crowd proved the announcement to be a genuine surprise. “This is our last song, though we’ll come back if you want us to,” announced Murphy before admitting, “actually we’ll just come back anyway”. ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’ proved itself as the group’s “it” song as the pit of the Hi Fi went mental for its frenzied chorus. The guitar/bass break toward the end saw Murphy and bassist Tord Øverland-Knudsen delivering the same energy of the mosh pit before the set came to a conclusion.
Returning as promised, ‘Patricia The Stripper’ saw Murphy’s hair completely deflated from sweat as the group’s awesome harmonies and “whoo-oo’s” shone with the addition of the mass crowd voice. Following the guitar driven number, Murphy and drummer Dan Haggis switched spots for something completely unexpected – Øverland-Knudsen singing ‘Postman Pat’ in Norwegian. The hilarious interlude was a welcome variation from the delivery of tracks almost solely from Proudly Present: A Guide To Love Loss And Desperation. Announcing the end of the set for real, Murphy and co. were met by a rather dooming response, which was only barely saved by Murphy yelling, “Let’s make it a big one”. ‘Backfire At The Disco’ ensued and the group decided to one up their mental stage antics, resulting in Murphy tripping, falling over and knocking down his entire keyboard setup whilst still attempting to complete his riff. Arising unscathed, his only words were, “That was the best thing I’ve ever done live”.
Catchy songs, good humour and energetic stage antics all added up to a brilliant set from the Wombats and showed that the group warrant their hype. There’s no doubt that when they return next summer – as they announced – that they’ll be upping the size of their venue, and that’ll surely mean a bigger stage show, with hopefully some new material to formulate a longer set.
