The Wombats - Festival Hall

Last night Lovely, his friend Michael from work and I went to see the Wombats. I was originally not going to this gig, as we believed they were general admission tickets, and Festival Hall GA is the worst for me; I cannot see any of the musicians or their shenanigans up on stage because of my ridiculous height *grumbles*
Yet, as fate would have it, the tickets turned out to be seated ones and as neither were able to find someone to take the third ticket, I ended up getting to go anyway. And I'm so glad I did, because it was so much more that I expected it to be (I think I should just go in to gigs with lowered expectations from now on, because I'm always so pleasantly surprised).

I should mention the supports briefly; Owl Eyes was lovely as always, she seems to be getting more confidant every time I see her, and I love that her dance moves are evolving accordingly. Faker was....well, I will say this, I did quite enjoy 'Hurricane', if only for nostalgic purposes, but that was about it. Sorry dude, but laying on the ground and kicking your legs in the air like a flipped cockroach does not make you hardcore, but I admire your bravery.

The Wombats however, knew exactly how to put on a good show. Not only was their intensity and live enthusiasm infectious, they had tons of super cool visual and lighting effects throughout, including smoke screens and green laser beams that fanned out like neon palm fronds across the audience. I also rather enjoyed their jet-lagged banter, which came across as adorable when spoken with a Liverpool accent.
Instead of detracting from the music, all of this managed to accompany it perfectly; there was an erratic yet also kind of desperate sense of youthful indulgence that I often get when listening to their lyrics. That and they're just really good fun; at the end of the encore, Murphy came out wearing a Panda suit head and proceeded to rock out on his famous decoupage guitar (which is my favourite looking instrument of any musician ever) for a couple of minutes.

Seriously, how cool is that guitar?

Favourites included: Moving to New York, Techno Fan, Kill the Director, Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves), Jump into the Fog, Girls/Fast Cars and of course Lets Dance to Joy Divison, which was a perfect song to end on.