The spirit of indie pop is still very much alive and during The Wombats’ AO Arena gig it had an added bit of bounce.
The Liverpool three-piece, formed in 2003, stopped in Manchester on Saturday night as part of their arena tour supporting the band’s sixth album Oh! The Ocean. The thousands packed into the venue undoubtedly enjoyed value for money with support coming from Red Rum Club and Everything Everything.
The latter, a Manchester favourite, produced a 10-song stint which featured Kemosabe, Spring/Sun/Winter/Dread, Cough Cough and Distant Past in one of the best ‘warm-ups’ you are likely to see. Frontman Jonathan Higgs’ unique vocals were as flawless as ever with him putting them to full use on Everything Everything’s closer No Reptites.
Arguably Everything Everything’s booking felt a little ‘grown up’ for the festivities but given how many people arrived early, to see them, that clearly didn’t materialise into an issue. Rightfully so, as the band are arena headliner quality on their own.
Soon after, The Wombats took to the stage, arriving to The Power of Love, by Huey Lewis and The News, invoking inevitable thoughts of classic 1980s film franchise Back to The Future.
What followed was a demonstration of longevity which has set The Wombats apart from some of their peers who now, rather sadly, reside in indie landfill. Not afraid to go big early, with renditions of Moving to New York and Techno Fan, the 10,000 plus people in Manchester’s AO Arena were assuredly in for a good time.
This was confirmed when lead Matthew Murphy asked ‘How the f**k are we doing tonight?’ with enthusiastic loud cheers and whoops coming back at him. The group's indie pop calling cards have ensured such affection remains for The Wombats, aided by their sense of fun, and in more recent times their latest releases have helped them capture a new generation of fans - always evident by the fresh from exams crowds at the band’s Leeds Festival sets.
On Saturday, Murphy engaged fans with a song about a gender he’ll never understand through Kill The Director and talk of Japan with an airing of Tokyo before a wisdom of wombats (a quick Google was needed to discover the collective term for the animal) joined Murphy and bandmates Tord Øverland Knudsen and Dan Haggis for main set closer Let’s Dance to Joy Division.
The resourceful wisdom firing confetti from cannons into the audience. Just for the avoidance of confusion, it was people in wombat suits...
Returning for a three-song encore, Murphy declared Manchester to be ‘one of the greatest cities on planet earth’. The very enjoyable evening of frolics was brought to a close with Greek Tragedy as huge inflatable colourful balls descended from above.
Lots of fans took the mammoth items of memorabilia out of the venue as they headed onto Manchester’s city centre streets.
Setlist
- Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come
- Moving to New York
- Cheetah Tongue
- Techno Fan
- Kate Moss
- Ready for the High
- 1996
- Pink Lemonade
- I Love America and She Hates Me
- Kill the Director
- My Head Is Not My Friend
- Lethal Combination
- Blood On the Hospital Floor
- Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)
- Patricia the Stripper
- The World’s Not Out to Get Me, I Am
- Method to the Madness
- Lemon to a Knife Fight
- If You Ever Leave, I'm Coming With You
- Let's Dance to Joy Division
Encore
- Can’t Say No
- Turn
- Greek Tragedy
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