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The Wombats step out to the Norsk crowd with big grins on their faces. They obviously have a game plan of how they want the night to go and by the looks of them it was something like “let’s just have as much fun as possible!”
The Norwegian crowd are mashed in tightly together and ready to bounce and do so unreservedly as The wombats step into their first couple of tunes including the smash hit crowd pleaser “Kill the Director”.
“Damn” I think to myself. I like The Wombats but hadn’t considered how they would be live, with an energy that proved to be infectious and spread like myxomatosis through the crowd. The main conduit for the dynamism is the Norwegian wing of the band, Tord, who jumps out from his mike stand to the front of the stage at every available opportunity and OWNS it.
Imagine this effect on the crowd, who are whipped into a frenzy each time. So much so that one guy in the crowd surfs above their heads before deciding jump onto the barrier landing square on his ballsack. I was less than a meter away and I have never seen anything more painful, I think he was crying blood!
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The boys are magnificent and have great banter with the audience, sympathising with the guy who landed on his balls and recalling a story about a singer in and band that once supported them. This dude had twisted his testes but still played the gig that night but by the time he had arrived at hospital he was only seconds away from having to have them cut off!
Singer Matt and drummer Dan give the most of the chat to the crowd in collaboration with Tørd’s “Tigger” like leaping. Dan even tries his hand at Norwegian. “Takk”, he says “vi skal spille en ny sang nå. Vi hop at dere liker det” (Thanks, we will play a new song now. We hope that you all like it) before playing the genius Tokyo Vampires and Werewolves, which you should be able to hear now.
As the gig is prior to a new album coming out there are a fair few new songs coming out. Normally this would induce a full on belly groan but not this time as the songs are great and received well. A particular favourite of mine on first hearing being “Schumacher the Champagne”, which has a Sgt Peppers vibe to it. So make sure you grab the new album “The Wombats Present…This Modern Glitch”, which will also include “Jump into the Fog” and “Tokyo Vampires”.
The last song of the night is “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” just to make sure they properly smash it out of the park! Boom!
Massive thanks to Maria Malone and Dan Haggis for sorting me out with the guestlist!
K*
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