The Wombats, Faker, Owl Eyes @Entertainment Centre Theatre,Adelaide (17/10/2011)

Tue 18th Oct, 2011 in Gig Reviews

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Owl Eyes comes on stage.
Cue SCREAMS from the audience.
She lifts an arm.
Cue SCREAMS.

It seems there is a lot of very excitable young people at this gig for The Wombats. There are some older indie folk here, but they are massively outnumbered by the next wave of indie poppers. For many, it’s their first ever gig and they are running around squealing at everything, treating the whole thing like a big school formal with no teachers to worry about. Not yet down with the etiquette of going to a gig, many of these young folks are pushing, screaming and rough-housing with each other for much of the proceedings.

Owl Eyes is received enthusiastically. It’s safe to say that a debt of thanks is owed to Karen O and Florence, and perhaps even Megan Washington for the general vibe of her set. Wearing a leopard skin print dress and feathered head piece, 20 year old Brooke Addamo seemed right at home on the big stage and the kids were lovin’ it! Her own songs like Pieces, 1+1 and Faces are all lovely indie pop tunes, but people really went crazy for her Like a Version of Foster The People’s Pumped Up Kicks.

Owl Eyes walk off stage.
SCREAM
A roadie walks across the stage.
SCREAM!
Faker arrive.
You get the idea.

Faker haven’t been around much lately, but they have lost none of the punchy performance their live shows are known for. Nathan Hudson’s vocals seemed a little buried for much of their set. Kicking off with Are You Magnetic? with Hudson on guitar, things were a little subdued to begin with, but once he had ditched the guitar, he was all-running, all-flailing, all-leaping about the stage for much of their allotted time. By the time they got to Quarter to Three from 2005’s Addicted Romantic, things started to pick up pace. Half way through this sing-a-long favourite, it occurred to me that the average age of this audience is about sixteen, which means they were about 10 when this song came out only SIX years ago. Hurricane and Sleepwalking were both highlights, with Hudson looking in vain for something else to climb and jump from. I’m slightly confused why they didn’t finish with the massively popular This Heart Attack, which generated the biggest response of their bracket by far. It the lacklustre response to their new song all the more pronounced.

Faker walk off stage.
SCREAM
A roadie walks across the stage.
Every 16 year old in the place decides they should be in the front row.
SCREAM
The Wombats arrive.
Oh jeez.

Hot damn these boys are popular in this country. This is their third visit in twelve months – the venues keep getting bigger and ticket prices keep jumping up. It is, therefore, slightly disappointing that the set list was almost identical to their last visit in May, but I guess when you are on a good thing stick to it. They kicked off with Our Perfect Disease and the kids went off. The staging was simple with a video screen made up of interlocking triangles used to great effect, and occasional laser lights. Kill The Director and Party In A Forrest were next and whilst the peeps down front were singing along, The Wombats seem a little tired from half way back in the hall.

“This song is about falling in love with a prostitute,” quips singer Matthew Murphy introducing Jump Into the Fog, complete with ‘foggy’ projections up the back.

“This song is about falling in love with a prostitute,” explains about the next song Patricia The Stripper – I feel a running gag coming on. The Wombats have a nice line in, sounding very contemporary and indie, while pillaging 1980’s sounds and looking a bit like The Cure on red cordial. As the show progressed I came to realise that like many contemporary indie bands (I’m looking at you MGMT), they seem to have three or four absolute killer tracks of genius, and the rest are merely good/quite good/alright. By that, I mean there is nothing wrong with Schumacher the Champagne; it’s fine, but stacked up against (and followed directly) by the solid gold diamond encrusted awesomeness of Techno Fan, it merely sounds alright. Techno Fan is one of those songs that makes me deliriously happy. It’s explosive, enthusiastic, super catchy hooks and witty lyrics manage to conjure an indie kid distain for dance music, while making a kick-ass dance track. That synth line, the woo-woo backing vocals and the party-at-all-costs sentiment; it’s fucking great. Every time they sing “Shut up and stay with me stay with me,” it is utterly joyful, and I laugh every time I hear the line “I didn’t pay twenty sheets not to throw a shape.” It’s everything a great indie dance song should be and more.

Backfired At The Disco and 1996 kept things chugging along and the audience was in the palm of their hands, with masses of leaping, singing and did I mention the screaming? Little Miss Pipedream slowed things down briefly, before Moving to New York and My First Wedding smashed things back to a frenetic pace. Speaking of happiness bombs, the set closed with Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves) which saw the WHOLE place jumping up and down, hands in the air, singing their heads off. It was utterly glorious; four minutes of perfect union between a hip band a young audience.

But wait, there was more! The band returned for Anti-D and Walking Disasters, both perfectly fine songs, but the climax people had been waiting for was Let’s Dance To Joy Division. It was a huge and frantic climax. People were losing their minds through the entire Ent Cent Theatre – dancing, leaping and strangely running on the spot as everybody yells along at a breakneck pace. “We’re SO HAPP-PEE” sings the crowd at their voices. Perfect.

Strangely, the band did an instrumental jam thing at the end (with Murphy in a Panda mask), which (as in Fakers case) didn’t really add anything to proceedings. And then before they left us, a reminder that they’ll be back in March for Future Music.