Formed in Liverpool in 2003 The Wombats have sold in excess of 1 million records and tonight their tour in support of the current album ‘Oh! The Ocean’ has rolled into Glasgow and the cavernous OVO Hydro.
Support for the award winning headliners came from the Ivor Novello Awards nominated Everything Everything and the Mancunian art rock band played a more than decent set to ready the eager crowd for the main band.
The Wombats came bounding on stage at a touch after 9pm and revelled in the roar of the crowd as they bounced through ‘Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come’
Matthew Murphy on Lead vocals and guitar stood steadfast behind his microphone whilst Overland Knudsen went into overdrive as he jumped and whirled across the stage with his bass guitar as a dance partner!
Dan Haggis hammered out the beat from the rear of the stage with some tight drumming.
A basic and very dark stage left plenty of space for the dance moves to continue through a very energetic set and the lads made the best use of it as they took every opportunity to cut loose.
The obligatory huge screens kept those at the rear of the venue visually involved whilst those at the front were tantalisingly close to their musical heroes; the OVO signature sound was loud and clear wherever you chose rot stand (or sit) in the arena.
The lads have certainly come a long way from their first Glasgow show at King Tut’s to headlining the massive arena of the OVO Hydro and, on the strength of tonight’s show, it won’t come as a surprise to those lucky enough to have been on the journey with them.
The band always cite Glasgow as one of their favourite places to play and their opinion won’t have changed after tonight… the energy from the audience was palpable.
As the show raced towards the inevitable end the band had one last trick… dozens of huge balloons fell from nets on the ceiling and everyone loves to punch balloons in the air at gigs!
All too soon it was time for the hyped up fans to go out into the cold Clydeside air; each with their own special memories of what had been a special occasion… some wishing they had brought a jacket!
Review & Photographs by John Brown Photography
