The Wombats, Circa Waves @ The Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide (30/07/2015)
The Adelaide Entertainment Centre had a reasonable crowd for the British supporting act, Circa Waves. The four piece band were a great support band, their hyped up playing style transferred to the crowd as they kicked off with an explosive start into Young Chasers.
Without catching a breath, they had already played Good For Me and So Long. It may be winter in Adelaide but Circa Waves certainly brought the summer with them. Full of cheeky rifts and summer vibes, they played Fossils which had the crowd even more excited than before. The drumsticks were flying as they played with a crazed frenzy. Stuck In My Teeth was another crowd favourite that had everyone dancing to an insane guitar solo at the end. The band had a good rapport with the crowd. |
One of the guitarists counted the crowd into the next song, Get Away, which had the audience moving to the fast pace of the guitar and drums. Lead singer, Kieran Shudall, announced their next song as a love song. While, My Love, sounds like it might be a gentle, heart-warming track, it still holds the same exuberance as many of their other songs.
It’s any wonder how they are able to continuously play so many fast paced songs without falling over with exhaustion. Kieran’s last words were, “We are so happy to play this next song for you. We hope to come back next year.” The finished off their set with T-Shirt Weather, which was a cracker of a track that had the crowd screaming. Drumsticks were, again, flying through the air and a cymbal stand was held triumphantly in the air, as all rock gods do, as they exited the stage.
The crowd called for The Wombats to grace the stage after a long half hour wait. The audience were surprised when every person on the stage they screamed at was only stage crew and not the band members. When the Liverpool three piece did come on stage, they did it with as much as an entrance that they could muster. Including excessive strobes, smoke and crowd favourite, Your Body Is A Weapon. Shrouded in smoke they went straight into Jump Into The Fog. After two relatively new songs, they went back to the classic Moving To New York that really had the crowd going with one of their older and less pop-py tracks.
There was a clear line between old and new fans. The older fans seemed more detached from their new work while the newer fans couldn’t understand the crazy dancing of the older fans to 2006 Wombat songs. Matthew Murphy, lead singer, finally greeted the crowd with the ease of many years on stage, “Hello Radelaide”. Soon, Greek Tragedy and Be My Shadow were played in a fevered rush with the crowds bodies mashing together in what could loosely be called dancing. With the promise of a free steak dinner to whoever slut dropped first to their next song, 1996, the mosh pit was a mass of falling bodies.
This is Not A Party and Headspace had a good electro pop feel mixed with subtle rock sounds. Techno Fan had a slow build up that sent the crowd into a frenzy during the chorus’, although the insane light show that was going throughout the entire set might have caused mass seizures during the heavy electronic track. The English Summer had a heavier rock sound which the bassist, Tord Øverland Knudsen, correctly saying, “Jump even if you haven’t got calf muscles.” Considering everyone had probably already lost physical shape to the toes, it was a good assumption that we were starting to lose feeling in our calf muscles. Luckily, a slow Little Miss Pipedream gave a little bit of a rest for the exhausted punters. Although, it was easy to see some of the newer fans were a bit bored with this older tune.
Matthew said, “One of the sides smells like California…and certain parts of Jamaica.” As he cheekily laughed along with the crowd before jumping into a harder rock song, Kill The Director. That track is the only time you are ever allowed to continuously scream Bridget Jones into the air and not be judged for it. Give It A Try, Tokyo (Vampires And Wolves) and Emoticons brought more of the electro rock that The Wombats had been so successful at melding together. It should be pointed out that the bassist’s dancing oddly resembled that of an ostrich giving a mating dance. Being the most energetic person on stage it was surprising how he could keep it up for the whole hour and a half set.
An encore was begged for, Matthew initially tricking the crowd into believing it was a new song rather than the only classic older track that HAD to finish the set. Let’s Dance To Joy Division is one of the hardest songs to jump or dance to due to the hectic guitar rifts, solos and mile a second drum beat. But the song was worth the wait and met all hard-core Wombat fan’s dreams. To everybody’s surprise, that wasn’t the end for The Wombats. They decided to finish off with a few bars of Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name. The heavy finish left a ringing in the ears, desperation for a seat and absolutely no regrets.
Elizabeth Alderslade