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The Wombats – Festival Hall
Back in town again following the release of their sixth album Oh! The Ocean, The Wombats returned to Festival Hall for Oh! The Tour – a hit-filled night of nostalgic crowd favourites, incredible new releases and of course, lots of dancing wombats.
Fremantle band Ra Ra Viper opened the night to an already packed crowd at Festival Hall. The five piece band showcased another example of a band from Western Australia killing it in the Australian live music scene. It didn’t take long for the crowd to warm up to the band, singing along to everything from Pinkies early on in the set, all the way through to closing songs Sally (She Lies) and Tora.
UK-based artist Bea and Her Business were next up, making her Australian debut. Coming out to tell the crowd, ‘This is the biggest show I’ve ever played’, her nine-track set opened strong with a personal favourite Safety Net and continued with All the Boys and Rich before the crowd cheered for another favourite, Sunburnt Shoulders. With songs exploring everything from body image, toxic friendship fallouts and understanding your self-worth, Bea’s set continued to impress as things slowed down a little for Me Against My Head, a solo performance of We Are Not the Same and a new unreleased track Delicate AF – which received the biggest response of the night so far. Closing out on Good Things and Born To Be Alive, the set was completely flawless and we were grateful to see such an incredible performance from a supporting act. We hope to see more of Bea and Her Business back in Australia as soon as possible.
Now it was time for the main event. Having seen The Wombats 10 times over the last decade in Melbourne alone, we knew the band were familiar with our city and our fans and couldn’t wait to see what they had in store for us. Kicking things off with Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come, The Wombats wasted no time launching into a 20-song set that spanned old favourites and new bangers. ‘Right – come on Melbourne, let’s do this,’ shouted frontman Matthew Murphy, as Moving to New York took things up a notch.
From Cheetah Tongue and Techno Fan (their anthemic song about a brutal night out in East London), to Ready for the High (featuring an on-stage trumpet solo from a guy in a wombat costume), the set was packed with energy as it always is – the band encouraging everyone to sing and dance along. Murph introduced Can’t Say No by describing it as a song about ‘being a complete and utter bellend’, while 1996 came with a nostalgic nod to Wallace and Gromit in the lead up banter.
He remembered Festival Hall ‘very, very well’ having performed there back in both 2017 and 2018 before launching into Pink Lemonade, and tracks like I Love America and She Hates Me and Kill the Director (complete with Wonderwall tease and barbershop-style intro of Tales of Girls, Boys and Marsupials) which had the crowd in full force. It was clear as the crowd went wild during the last track that many of the audience had done this before, knowing exactly when to shout out or sing along.
My Head is Not My Friend slowed things down a little while a stripped-back acoustic Lethal Combination offered a brief moment of calm before the high-energy set resumed with Blood on the Hospital Floor, Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves), and Method to the Madness – possibly our favourite track of the night. Lemon to a Knife Fight arrived with a surprise jazz intro, while If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You and Turn closed out the main set. ‘I still don’t know what [the lyric] is, and I’ve never known, and I will never know,’ Murph joked, referencing the chorus of the hit track.
As the band returned for an encore, after alluding earlier to their ‘last two songs’ comment being a lie, they came out and played the songs they suggested might be played with Greek Tragedy and Let’s Dance to Joy Division closing out the set. Thanking the crowd, the band finished by saying ‘it can’t stop if you don’t stop’ referencing that they would be back sometime soon. We look forward to The Wombats imminent return, whenever that might be.