Words by Cher Dunn | Photos by Nicole Mago
The Wombats gave NYC two years and one month to forget how good they are live. On Monday and Tuesday night, the band was greeted by two sold-out shows and quickly reminded fans why they are one of our favorite bands.
The Mercury Lounge saw a packed house Tuesday night of buzzing fans barely able to walk past each other between the bar and the stage. The Mercury Lounge is a relatively small venue for The Wombats and it felt special and secret to be there. The fans waited patiently with anticipation seeping out their pores as the instruments were tuned well past 11pm and rap blasted through the venue. When fans talking turned into cheers from the back of the venue to the front, I turned to see The Wombats walking through the crowd to take the stage.
Wasting no time, the band blasted through “Your Body Is A Weapon” into crowd favorites “Jump Into The Fog” and “Moving To New York” as a sea of people sang back the lyrics with as much power and conviction as a band can hope for. The band joked in-between songs, from the New York crowd getting rowdy on Tuesday nights to the stage lights. “These lights make it feel like we are being interrogated for something we didn’t do” Dan Haggis says from the drum kit before continuing, “Whoever though interrogation could be fun, eh?”. Someone from the crowd responds quickly, “America!”. Yes, they’ve arrived.
The Wombats played a perfect mixture of tracks from their albums including their upcoming release Glitterbug. One of their new songs, “The English Summer”, explored a different sound for the band. The track had equally sweet and seductive vocals during the verses while packing a major punch of guitar, bass and drums on the refrain. The track has story-telling lyrics and energy we know and love from the band and is bound to be a major hit with fans upon release.
During the second half of the show, you know you are seeing an incredible live band when you think every song could be their last. The Wombats exploded through their new single, “Greek Tragedy”, “Tokyo- Vampires & Wolves” and “Let’s Dance To Joy Division” with bassist Tord Knudsen writhing around on the tiny stage until jumping into the crowd to play while be passed around by fans. The band thanked everyone after “Let’s Dance To Joy Division” and invited us to their returning shows in April before closing the night with a blood pumping version of “Euroscheisse” that had lead singer Matthew Murphy playing on top of the drum kit. The band said their goodbyes Dan leapt into the crowd, closely followed by Tord to crowd surf their way out the back.
The fans were left exuding even more anticipation for the new album Glitterbug and The Wombats return to the US in April, they are definitely not a band to be missed live.
Setlist:
Your Body Is A Weapon
Jump Into The Fog
Moving To New York
Give Me A Try
Techno Fan
Kill The Director
The English Summer
1996
Laura
Greek Tragedy
Tokyo- Vampires & Wolves
Let’s Dance To Joy Division
Euroschiesse
www.thewombats.co.uk
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