REVIEW: The Wombats @ Port City Music Hall 08/10
The warm breeze gently rustled the pines, and the sea lapped at the sandy shores; all was calm in Maine on August 10th…except at Port City Music Hall where Liverpool indie-dance floor heroes, The Wombats, were about to make their debut in the Pine Tree State that night. The nearly sold-out venue was packed to the brim with youthful energy and anticipation. The air buzzed with excited electricity that fans were waiting to have sparked by The Wombats.
Cheerleader, a Philadelphia-based band who was touring with The Wombats for their second time, opened up the night with their catchy pop tunes. They got the crowd warmed up, but it wasn’t until The Wombats took the stage to play “Give Me a Try” that all the pent up energy was released. Immediately, hundreds of voices synced up to that of Matthew Murphy (or Murph, as fans lovingly refer to him) as he finished the first song and launched into another fan favorite, “Jump into the Fog.”
The set showcased the songs of Glitterbug, The Wombats’ third and most recent release, which included the paranoid anthem “Pink Lemonade” and “Curveballs” (a “song about threesomes and the pros and cons,” explained Murph.) “Emoticons” and “English Summer” were also among the high-energy Glitterbug tunes that got the crowd bouncing, dancing, and singing with the enthusiasm fit for a crowd of thousands, not just a few hundred. The set also had a healthy dose of the classics, such as “Party in a Forest (Where’s Laura?)” and “Kill the Director” off The Wombats’ debut album, A Guide to Love, Loss, and Desperation. “1996” and “Techno Fan,” the electric anthems from This Modern Glitch, also made appearances.
Maybe it was the perfectly composed setlist, or the enthusiasm of both the fans and The Wombats, but there was an energy at the show that night that generally goes completely unmatched. There were times where Tord could have been mistaken for a firecracker with a bass. Murph and Dan Haggis (drummer) echoed that passion with vigor during the entirety of the set. Every spark of energy that The Wombats threw off while playing, the crowd amplified into a full blown fire. This was especially present during the tension of waiting for The Wombats to play their encore.
Sweat laced the foreheads of every person jittering and waiting anxiously on the floor. Murph kept the tension going, though, with a solo performance of the beautifully delicate song “Isabel.” But once the rest of The Wombats joined him on stage to play the well-known single off Glitterbug, “Greek Tragedy,” the most famed Wombats tune “Let’s Dance to Joy Division,” and a heavy, instrumental original, “A Hedgehog Went to a Chocolate Café,” Port City Music Hall unified for a euphoric celebration.
The fans could have been celebrating the fact that The Wombats finally came to Maine, or maybe they were just celebrating an unbelievable band’s music. Most likely, they were just enthusiastically celebrating one of the best shows Portland, Maine has ever seen.
– Olivia Gehrke