The Wombats, Jennifer Davies, Company: O2 Academy, Liverpool

The Wombats at O2 Academy

As The Wombats launch their world tour with a hometown gig, Getintothis’ Nick Maw is won over by the band’s enthusiastically vibrant and colourful pop tunes.

After starting the year with an intimate gig at The Magnet, The Wombats return to their home city to play the penultimate show of their European tour. What lead singer Matthew Murphy doesn’t tell his sold out audience is that this leads directly into a 5-month long worldwide tour.

Support comes from Jennifer Davies who has worked with The Wombats’ own Tord Knudsen on her Lapse of Time EP. The punchy, synth-rich tones and dance beats of her songs Silhouette and Choke mirror The Wombats‘ equally electronic sounding third album, Glitterbug, released on 13 April.

As The Wombats finally walk on stage, the crowd react with expected levels of adoration that is reproduced in every brief pause between songs. Witnessing the indulgent frenzy of the crowd upon hearing hits Lets Dance to Joy Division and Moving To New York, it is easy to see why The Wombats have become described as a marmite band: while their performance is incontestably vibrant and enthusiastic, it can quickly become alienating to a non-Wombaphiliac. Each synth bass line and fast drumbeat begin to become indistinguishable, and Matthew Murphy’s request for the crowd to “go for it” feels as unsubtle as some of their songs.

Despite all this, they deliver a surprisingly, perhaps even enviably, enjoyable set. The audience seem to know and appreciate songs from their latest album, released only 5 days earlier, just as well as favourites from A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation and This Modern Glitch.

The Wombats continue to show their ability to both write and perform intensely colourful, if somewhat one-dimensional pop songs, and the scale of their upcoming world tour indicates just how far this Liverpool trio have come.