The Wombats at the Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (06 May 2015)

After seeing The Wombats at the Triple Rock Social Club in early 2012 (their then-third time in Minneapolis within a year), we were pretty excited to have them returning to the Varsity Theater last Wednesday, May 6th. In the short three year absent since then, the UK band had gained a massive young fanbase. This is unbelievably amazing for the band, but ultimately made me feel incredibly old as we’ve been writing about this Liverpool band since 2007, before they had a record deal.

Wombats at The Electric Fetus

Before their sold-out show at the Varsity Theater, the trio stopped into local independent record store The Electric Fetus for a brief acoustic performance of songs from their recent Glitterbug release.



Singles ‘Your Body is a Weapon’ and ‘Greek Tragedy’ along with ‘Give Me a Try’, were played, all of which were well-received to the enthusiastic crowd that had gathered for the free late afternoon performance.



The only unfortunate thing was that it lasted less than 15 min, as singer Murph needed to rest his voice for the show that evening, but it was nice to hear the new songs stripped and acoustic, with even drummer Dan Haggis trading in his sticks for a guitar.

Cheerleader

At the Varsity Theater show, the first of two support act, Philadelphia’s Cheerleader opened up the show. They wore their UK love on their sleeves as they walked on stage to the sounds of The Stone Roses’ “She Bang the Drums”. The band was previously in town in October 2014 with Colony House at the Turf Club, but confessed that the Varsity show had a bigger audience.



Cheerleader was surprisingly good, playing some tracks, such as the title track and “Perfect Vision”, from their forthcoming album The Sunshine of Your Youth, available May 19th via Bright Antenna Records.

Life in Film

Next was London’s Life in Film, their first time in Minneapolis (which they’ve mistaken was the same as Indianapolis, their previous show). The band consists of singer/guitarist Samuel Fry, guitarist Edward Ibbotson, bassist Dominic Sennett, and drummer Micky Osment.



Looking over their setlist, they previewed a couple of new tracks (“Full Circle”, “It’s What Happens Next That Matters Most”), but with a healthy selections from their two previous EPs, including “Anna Please Don’t Go” and set closer “Alleyway”.



Based on the strong positive feedback from the audience, the band said they hope to be back again someday soon.

Wombat’s Setlist

As for The Wombats, fans flooded the front of the stage, dancing and singing to all of hits, particularly “Moving to New York”, “Kill the Director”, and “Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)”, and the two-song encore: “Emoticons” and classic “Let’s Dance To Joy Division”.



According to their intended setlist, they removed “Party In A Forest (Where’s Laura?)” from their set make room for “Patricia The Stripper” per a fan’s request. Murph noted that they hadn’t practice the song in a long time… implying that if they messed up, it wasn’t entirely their fault.



Half of their set were devoted to their latest Glitterbug (“Your Body Is A Weapon”, “Greek Tragedy”, “Be Your Shadow”, “This Is Not A Party”, “Headspace”, “The English Summer”, “Give Me A Try”, and “Emoticons”) with the remaining set divided between A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation (2007) and This Modern Glitch (2011). Overall a good, balanced set, although noticeably absent was fan-favorite “Backfire at the Disco”.



We hope to see the same passionate fans again when The Wombats return back to Minneapolis (to a bigger venue, of course).
The Wombats’ Glitterbug is out now on Bright Antenna Records/14th Floor Records/Warners Music UK.

john +
vu (vu@weheartmusic.com)
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