ShareThe Wombats performing their All The Hits Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Saturday 22nd October 2022
Review by Kevin Cooper
On Saturday night the popular indie band The Wombats paid Rock City a visit as part of their All The Hits Tour, and delivered a colourful and fun filled performance from a band who are at their best and know what they are best at.
With only front man Matthew Murphy, bass guitarist Tord Overland Knudsen and drummer and keyboardist, Dan Haggis on stage, each band mate demonstrated the ability to jump from keyboard, to drums, to guitar at will; their knowledge of music is clearly second to none.
And as they took this crowd on a journey through their whole career, they perfectly showed off their brilliance and the consistency of their discography. Balancing a back catalogue of some of indies biggest hits with the band’s newest songs taken from their latest album, Fix Yourself, Not The World, this night of greatest hits helped to remind the crowd about the golden age of indie music that has made this band a beloved mainstay.
The Wombats came on to the stage to infectious cheers before they burst into one of their hit songs, Moving To New York, from their first album A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation which was released in 2007. Following up with new song Flip Me Upside Down, there were bobbing heads and tapping feet as Knudsen’s pounding bass began.
There were a slew of second album fans favourites from 2011’s This Modern Glitch. Techno Fan emulated the rave inspired setting the song was inspired by. Jump Into The Fog got the Rock City crowd throwing some shapes and the ultimate synth party of Tokyo (Vampires And Wolves) got everyone dancing.
Other popular songs such as Greek Tragedy and Pink Lemonade felt almost anthemic at times as the words to these much loved releases were belted out by the crowd. Elsewhere The Wombats had all of the other bases covered, with frantic bursts of energy with the classics, Kill The Director and indie dance floor filler, Let’s Dance To Joy Division, all showering the crowd in nostalgia.
The two songs from their recently released EP were extremely good live. The silky guitar riff and the lively chorus of Is This What It Feels Like To Feel Like This? really stood out and with Knudsen’s excellent bass coupled with Murphy’s more controlled vocals on I Think My Mind Has Made Its Mind Up, was really engaging.
There was the ultimate sing your heart out chorus in This Car Drives All By Itself and the supercharged Ready For The High that went down a treat. And before it was time for the encore, there was a solo acoustic rendition of Lethal Combination that had the crowd singing all of the words and was a beautiful highlight.
Closer Turn was a much slower paced song rarely heard amongst The Wombat’s high energy set, but as this was brought to its climax confetti canons shot out pink and red hearts which covered the crowd who had enjoyed every minute of this generous twenty song set list.
The Wombats are without doubt proper artists who have honed their skills perfectly, and based on Saturday night’s showing they are fully deserving of their almost two decades at the top of the indie game.
