Review: The Wombats and Elderbrook at The Horden Pavillion
Walking into the Hordern Pavillion, I am surrounded by fans of The Wombats who have already bought well in the merchandise stocks. The tour dates line the spine of the shirts with many still to visited by the prolific indie rock band. This crowd is ready.
Lighting the backing screen, the name of support act ELDERBROOK is rendered in block lettering. Known for his electronic productions, it's refreshing to have Elderbrook combined with the indie rock of The Wombats and see a lineup showcase artists who differ from each other. As the background pop tunes fade out and the lights dim, a single artist emerged with more instruments prepared that I thought possible to play at one time. Nonetheless, Elderbrook took on the one-man job of singing, dancing, producing and looping on the microphone, mini keyboard, synth and drum pad. Under a single spotlight, his trademark dance moves of bending his elbows, and the jelly-like knee bends matched the wavelengths of the groovy bangers he began to dish out. Highlights were the increasingly popular tune ‘Difficult To Love’ followed by an unreleased version of ‘Capricorn’ which is set for release in August, for those keen to hear more. Inevitably, his mega-hit with fellow production duo Camelphat, ‘Cola’ lead a chorus of phone captures. Following on from such a high, he chose to mellow the crowd with a more heartfelt finale in the form of ‘How Many Times’. Overall, the performance did as expected, with newfound listeners hyped and pleasantly surprised all at once.
As The Horden reached capacity The Wombats appeared under rainbow coloured downlights, while singing of “fading to black” a line from the third single ‘Cheetah Tongue’ off their 2018 album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. From this first line onwards, the crowd could anticipate each track from the opening seconds, clearly indicating how The Wombats have made their mark on the Australian listening public. The evident energy of this three-piece, composed of lead singer and lead guitarist, Matthew Murphy, drummer, Dan Haggis, and bassist, keyboardist and back-up vocalist Tord Øverland Knudsen, was clearest as the guitarists jumped through riffs on ‘1996’ and the drums got a workout on ‘Kill the Director’ with the vocalist elongating the very last lyric of ‘Bridget Jones’ for over 10 seconds. Newer gems including ‘White Eyes’ and ‘Black Flamingo’ prove the evolving sounds of The Wombats with tasty guitar bends, yet their unique verse development and repetitive hooks are testament as why this band has been at the forefront of the indie rock genre for a decade. A crowd favourite ‘Techno Fan’ utilized all these elements, with the not-so-subtle inclusion of twirling green laser lights which heavily parodied the referenced genre of music.
As now seasoned performers with 15 years of impressing crowds behind them, the in-between banter from front-man Murphy kept the audience engaged throughout. Adding value to each track and relating it to their wider body-of-work and the metaphors they represent allows listeners to gain a deeper appreciation of the tracks than just the liner notes of each album. The Wombats even showed affection for their fans, urging them to “raise their paws” in a more light hearted touch to their show. Aware of the impression this three-piece from Liverpool has had on the place where their namesake marsupial resides, The Wombats played to what felt-like an almost home-town crowd throughout, and let us know they appreciated it.
