In early December, indie rock band The Wombats brought their biggest ever UK Arena Tour to Birmingham’s BP Pulse Arena. They were supported by The Snuts, who played an incredible set and really brought up the energy of the audience, although sadly they were the only support act as local band Overpass had to pull out due to illness.
When the Wombats came on stage it was to the opening song of their most recent album Oh! The Ocean, ‘Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come’. Despite the unenthusiastically worded song title, this opened their set with a bang – the crowd was immediately yelling along to the lyrics and dancing nearly as energetically as bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen, who didn’t stay still for any of the 90-minute set. Clearly inspired by Knudsen’s infectious enthusiasm, I repeatedly witnessed some of the audience attempt a mosh pit during the more up-tempo songs, with ‘attempt’ being the key word.
They never played two songs from the same album back-to-back and managed to intersperse their biggest hits pretty evenly
The band first formed in 2003, since releasing six albums as well as multiple EPs and 40 extra songs in 2019’s compilation B-Z Sides, which I think is a very underappreciated collection of their work. Considering this, their setlist was immensely well chosen, with multiple songs from each album creating a very cohesive performance that spanned their whole career. They never played two songs from the same album back-to-back and managed to intersperse their biggest hits pretty evenly throughout the set; this was an amazing choice, as it meant that even audience members who were not super-fans or that knew their older albums better than their newer ones were constantly engaged in the performance.
The Wombats have stayed a pretty well-known name in the British indie rock scene for over 20 years, an impressive feat considering how many great bands fade into semi-obscurity after much less time than that. I think that this is because of their genuine love and appreciation for their older work, shown through the huge amount of older songs they played on this tour, along with their continued passion for developing their sound and making new music.
This mysterious wombat seemed to be having a truly amazing time on stage
A few songs in, they played ‘Ready for the High’ from their 2022 number 1 album Fix Yourself, Not the World, where they were joined on stage by someone in a wombat costume. This mysterious wombat seemed to be having a truly amazing time on stage, running up to drummer Dan Haggis to jump at him, playing the trombone during the song’s instrumental section, and finally lying face-down on the front of the stage and patting an unsuspecting security guard on the head.
At around the show’s midpoint, they played Glitterbug’s ‘Pink Lemonade’, an album track that therefore never charted but is undeniably one of their best and most popular songs. Soon after came the most popular song from their debut album, ‘Kill the Director’, which ends with both the band and the audience chanting the line “This is no Bridget Jones!” at an increasingly loud volume. These two songs in close succession really livened up the crowd, with the energy persisting even through the slower song ‘Lethal Combination’ which was performed beautifully and acoustically. Ultimately, my favourite song they performed was ‘Lemon to a Knife Fight’ from their 2018 album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. This was my top song in my 2018 Spotify wrapped, and seeing it live transported me straight back to being 13 – in fact, the whole concert felt very nostalgic.
There was nobody in the stadium who was not dancing and singing along
The Wombats chose to end the concert with ‘Turn’, although frontman Matthew Murphy was amusingly open about this being a fake end to the concert, as they would inevitably have an encore. ‘Turn’ was a great choice, with loads of huge multi-coloured balloons sending the crowd into a frenzy as they dropped from the sky.
After the rigmarole of chanting for an encore everyone knows will take place regardless, the band came back out onto a stage now filled with said balloons, and had to kick them back into the audience to begin. They chose two encore songs, ‘Greek Tragedy’ which was first released in 2015 but regained popularity a few years back, and one of their oldest and biggest songs ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’. There was nobody in the stadium who was not dancing and singing along, with The Wombats doing an amazing job at infecting everyone with their enthusiasm. During the final song, the wombat costume made a reappearance, this time joined by three others, some armed with trombones and some with confetti cannons to further add to the upbeat chaos of the encore. I enjoyed this concert even more than I thought I would, and so did my friend who knew far less of their music than I did. Overall, I would highly recommend that if you ever have a chance to see The Wombats live, you take it.
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