The Wombats, Faker, Owl Eyes @Festival Hall, Melbourne(15/10/2011)

Sun 16th Oct, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Over the past year The Wombats have made Australia their second home and rightfully so, given the name of one of our furry critters is making them a bigger recognised band by the hour. Festival appearances weren’t on the cards this time around though, with The Wombats plugging their latest works on their own ‘This Modern World’ tour.

Festival Hall’s curfew meant another strangely early start for a Friday night gig, with local girl Owl Eyes hitting the stage with her band at only 7:30. Little worry for her, though, as this was one keen crowd, and with so many arriving early for a good vantage point, Owl Eyes was met with a sizeable crowd. Equipped with her strong vocals, tight band and breezy dance moves, Brooke Addamo was equal parts the hippy folk performer and stylish pop star. She had very little, if no trouble facing the room and appeared more than confident, her chilled yet fun stage presence adding a lot to the tunes. When a cover of Pumped Up Kicks was offered, it seemed like the crowd had turned from ‘early for Wombats spot’ to ‘early for Like a Version cover’, with more than plentiful participation on the floor. A strong return to her own material with Raiders finished things off, ensuring Addamo would snag a few more for her growing fan base.

Owl Eyes wasn’t exactly mosh-worthy, and The Wombats were still over an hour off by the time she’d finished, so you know a crowd must be up for a good night when they’re heaving forward on the floor this early on. Before the headliners, it was time for Faker to play; exciting the few wanting to jump, while simultaneously baffling the rest.

Returning from their extended hiatus, Faker didn’t exactly thrill in a way that’d pull any new ears to their tunes. And it isn’t hard to offend Faker fans, because it wasn’t hard to say they were far below the bar. With Nathan Hudson stationary behind a guitar for the opening tracks, things got off to a relatively dull start; Are You Magnetic? was full of mumbled vocals and Quarter to Three received the ‘ingenious’ intro: “This song is set in the back of a car at 2:45”. Hurricane brought with it Hudson’s trademark antics (running, flailing, crouching) though, and things quickly turned from dull to discomforting. The track released a shambles of murmured vocals and attempted break dancing that just made for an awkward stage presence.

The band played on and sounded good, even the occasional synth floods getting the nod. Yet Hudson’s relentless grabs for the crowd’s affection quickly became irritating. And for all the effort he put in – his persistent runs, journeys to the barrier and striking of poses – Hudson unfortunately couldn’t get things to work where it counted: his singing. Nothing was going to stop the eager front half of Festival Hall’s floor, however, and a late addition of This Heart Attack did garner a hefty mosh jumping along. It was the crowd holding the song up though, not the band, which just felt bizarre.

The Wombats entered the stage beneath sharp red, black and white triangular lights, casually taking their places while the crowd took care of the fanfare; hands, cameras, voices and jumps all immediate as the English trio led into album opener Our Perfect Disease. The projected pulse line behind the band didn’t seem nearly active enough as the song reached its break out, when bassist Tord Øverland-Knudsen joined in with the crowd’s energy and got his own heart rate racing. Kill The Director followed and was the right party starter, with the finest showing of clappers a band could possibly ask for.

The straight up high that The Wombats brought for the audience was much appreciated, and the set that ensued didn’t relent in providing joyous moment after joyous moment. With a healthy balance between the band’s two albums, each song had its own cool garnish: Patricia The Stripper saw the crowd steal the vocal from Matthew Murphy; Schumacher The Champion produced exceptional sparkly sidelines with the seated crowd breaking out their phones; _Party in a Forest (Where’s Laura?) _ produced one of the night’s best projections with movement through a 3D forest; and Techno Fan – one of the night’s best – brought out the lasers to play. This provided an explanation for why they’d been filling the room with smoke all night, as sheet lasers washed over the crowd to excellent visual effect.

What made the performance great, however, were not the aforementioned novel additions. It really came down to two things. First, without any glamorous stage accoutrements, the band was still highly engaging and fun to watch, with Murphy stepping out from behind the mic at any opportunity and Øverland-Knudsen relentlessly showing off his impressive footwork sprinting about the stage (it was amazing he didn’t trip over himself). Second, they’re incredibly good humoured and emit a real comradery on stage, as they joke amongst themselves and to the crowd. Drummer, Dan Haggis had the banter responsibilities for most of the night, with quips about accents, jetlag and being woken in a hotel hallway on their last visit. Murphy produced some good lines later in the piece as well, introducing Little Miss Pipedream with, “This is a love song, we always encourage people to grind during this song.” The three just emanate delight, which everyone at Festival Hall was able to respond to in kind.

Moving to finish up the night, _Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves) _ brought out the lasers again and the loudest response of the set. The song was an obvious crowd pleaser, but with it out of the way there were no guesses as to what would end the encore. Before that, though, a rousing Anti D proved to be a late stand out, with the projection of changing eye close-ups both captivating and somewhat frightening (something about the spread of five eyes blinking in a wave). The finale was Let’s Dance to Joy Division, which sent the venue into a frenzy, before an instrumental rock out, tonight entitled The Melbourne Face Melter, gave the floor one more chance to go crazy, with Murphy jamming about the stage in a full head panda mask. One more chance to dance, that is, until The Wombats come back again in March for Future.

So, while some might find their frequenting of our shores a little excessive of late, when you see the trio in action there’s no doubt why the fans want more and more of them. Party anthems, excess energy and excellent humour, that’s what The Wombats were about at Festival Hall. And those in attendance will certainly be happy to have all of that again early next year.