It’s been almost three years since English indie rock band The Wombats last took to the stage in a Dutch venue. At the end of March they returned to the country, playing in Tilburg on the 30th, and returned to Amsterdam’s Paradiso on the 31st of March. The show was part of their ‘Oh! The Tour’ in support of their latest album Oh! The Ocean.
Doors to the venue opened at 19:00 and only thirty minutes later, support act Red Rum Club took to the stage. The audience had slowly but surely trickled in and the sold-out hall filled to the brim quickly. The six-piece from Merseyside, England consists of lead singer Fran Doran, guitarists and backing vocalists Tom Williams and Michael McDermott, bassist Simon Hepworth, drummer Neil Lawson and trumpeter Joe Corby. Of course, Doran took center stage, with the other band members taking their spots on his left and right as they all came on. The band opened their set with the very jazzy ‘Vibrate’. The funky track that might remind one of music by Arctic Monkeys talks about how the singer could not answer the other person’s call because he lost his phone and it was on vibrate. They followed it up with ‘Black Cat’ from their latest album Western Approaches, during which a dramatic pause made way for a great instrumental part.
Red Rum Club continued with ‘Would You Rather Be Lonely?’ and ‘Afternoon’, with the lead singer telling the audience to dance as they would also have to do so during The Wombats’ set. “Hips, shoulders, hands” Doran said before grabbing the tambourine and starting the track. Afterwards, Doran stated that the next song “is for anyone called Eleanor in the room”. Unfortunately for the band, Eleanor is very much not a common name in The Netherlands, so they were greeted with an astonishing silence. Doran jokingly said how instead, the song is “for anyone who wants to pretend to be called Eleanor”, which garnered a lot more noise and laughter from the Dutch people. The crowd enthusiastically clapped along to the track and trumpeter Joe Corby got his moment to shine during the song’s bridge.
It was then time to slow it all down for a second, with Doran grabbing an acoustic guitar to perform the song ‘Hole in My Home’. The crowd eagerly sang along to the final chorus which simply repeats the track’s title. Finally, the band ended their set with ‘Angelline’ with one of the band members high fiving a fan at the front of the audience, and ‘Vanilla’, a real earworm about being too boring for your lover for them to want to stay with you. Red Rum Club as a band, however, was not boring at all. All their songs were groovy ones that the audience really enjoyed. Doran invited the entire audience to come to their show in the upstairs room of the venue, which would take place after The Wombats’ set.
The Wombats’ own set was supposed to start at 20:30, but they started about 5 minutes later – possibly not an accident, as they opened the show with the iconic ‘Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come’. Fortunately, The Wombats did actually want to be there – their excitement was through the roof right from the get-go. On stage, lead singer, guitarist and keyboardist Matthew Murphy stood on the audience’s left, with bassist and keyboardist Tord Øverland Knudsen on the right and drummer Dan Haggis in the middle. On top of the bass drum sat an adorable wombat plushie. After their first song, the band moved on to ‘Moving to New York’ and ‘Cheetah Tongue’. Øverland Knudsen moved around the stage a lot as he sings considerably less than Murphy, treating the audience to his energetic bass playing.
Before moving on to the fourth song, Murphy told a story of how the last time the band played in this venue, someone jumped down from the balcony and had to be taken away to the hospital. The fan did give them a thumbs up to let them know that he was okay, but the band “does not encourage balcony jumping” as Murphy cheekily said. The Wombats continued with ‘Techno Fan’, the crowd clapping along to the beat right at the start, and ‘Kate Moss’, a song from the band’s latest album that Murphy wrote about “how everything went kind of sideways in my neighbourhood in east LA”. During the lively song ‘Ready for the High’, the band was joined on stage by someone in a wombat suit who carried a gigantic trumpet to ‘perform’ the solo with. The wombat bounced and ran around the stage, with Murphy saying after they left how the band has “got to call human resources, it’s getting kinda ridiculous…or animal rescue”. The Wombats not only make amazing music, but they are also very funny and kind people. A fan at the front of the audience was holding up a white marker, prompting Murphy to sign something for them. He promised to do so after playing the next song – ‘1996’, which won the Instagram fan vote – and indeed did, with the fan lifting themselves up using the stage so Murphy could sign their t-shirt.
Murphy then announced how the band would next be playing the “first of two songs tonight about lemons”, namely ‘Pink Lemonade’, with drummer Haggins making space for a keyboard behind his drums and playing that instead. After the song, the band asked the audience if they liked the ‘fur rug’ that formed the stage’s backdrop. This decision was clearly inspired by the cover of their latest album, which features an eye set in a furry animal’s face. The band noted how on one side, someone had drawn a cute heart-like shape in the fur – on the other side, however, someone drew… “a spaceship”. This led to a lot of laughter from the crowd, with the band then quickly moving on to “another new song about [Murphy’s] adopted country”: ‘I Love America and She Hates Me’.
For arguably one of the three most well-known songs on tonight’s setlist, the drummer asked the audience to help with “a little sing-song”. They opened the track with an acapella version of ‘Tales of Girls, Boys and Marsupials’ before diving straight into the bombastic ‘Kill the Director’ – which led to the first mosh pit of the night. The rowdy energy was quickly put to rest, however, as next on the setlist was ‘My Head Is Not My Friend’, which is a lot slower and more emotional. The same went for ‘Lethal Combination’, before which Haggis and Øverland Knudsen left the stage and Murphy took to the centre of the stage with his acoustic guitar and mic stand. The mood then did a full 180 again, with the other band members coming back and Murphy shouting out “let’s see your best dancing. For the entire rest of the set, up until the encore, the entire floor was one big mosh pit. From ‘Blood to the Dance Floor’ all the way to ‘If You Ever Leave Me, I’m Coming with You’ the audience jumped, ran and clapped while the band were shredding their guitar and bass and banging on the drums. During ‘Method to the Madness’, a song that starts off slowly but builds to an intense climax, a fan in the mosh pit even did a backflip, which the band shouted out afterwards.
“We are going to pretend this is our last song when you know it isn’t” Murphy stated before playing another of their three most well-known songs: ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’. During the song, they were joined by not one, not two, not three, but four (!) people in wombat suits – and they were a fun menace to watch. One of them excitedly high-fived as many fans as possible while the others danced around and got in the way of the band members. The band (and wombats) left the stage then, and obviously came back (without the wombats) for the encore. Haggis had stolen a head from the costume of one of the wombats, which he wore for roughly twenty seconds while playing the drums for ‘Can’t Say No’ before throwing it off again. The band ended the night with ‘Turn’ and ‘Greek Tragedy’, thanking the crowd right before playing the final song. It was an amazing night filled with great music, lots of wombats, jokes and mosh pits – one the crowd will surely never forget.
