The Wombats with Clubhouse at the Truman, Kansas City, MO (2022-02-05) review
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FEB 07 Cannery Ballroom Nashville, TN
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Their new album has been described as “a self-help manual for the domesticated malcontent” and the live show featured a trumpet-playing marsupial…!?
The Wombats returned to Kansas City, to play a very sold-out Truman in the heart of downtown on a chilly winter night, in front of some very loyal fans.
The evening opened with an easygoing thirty-five-minute set from Clubhouse, a young indie pop band from Columbus, OH (now LA-based) in support of its new seven-song EP, Are We Going Too Slow? (on AWAL Recordings), which they managed to write and record amid chemotherapy treatments, multiple surgeries, and a global pandemic.
Vocalist/rhythm guitarist Max Reichert has had to battle cancerous tumors in his leg and lungs, but he and the band have emerged in a happier place, evident in their performance as the set progressed and the crowd soaked up the good feelings.
An early set MGMT cover stopped any errant crowd conversations to pay attention and the EP’s title comes from a statement the band reflects on itself that Reichert sings on the title song’s chorus, “Another day spent in your head/You’re taking life too slow”. Any opener that gets applause when they come back out to dismantle their own gear, is clearly gaining fans and becomes one to watch.
We told you so—
Originally hailing from Liverpool, The Wombats have been on our radar for over fifteen years and are now enjoying their biggest success to date with the January release of fifth studio album Fix Yourself, Not the World (on AWAL Recordings), their very first to Top the UK Album charts after going Top Five previously.
As a result of the ongoing pandemic and the band being in different corners of the world (singer/guitarist Murph – LA; bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen – Oslo; drummer Dan Haggis- London), the album was created remotely and handed to several noteworthy producers, with obviously successful end results. Their ninety-minute headlining set was the chance to hear the culmination of those efforts, as well as revisit older favorites.
The set opened as the new album does, with the fever dream funk punk of “Flip Me Upside Down” and Murph singing, “You flip me upside down, I’m kind of getting into it” followed by the helplessness of humanity embodied in an automated vehicle in “This Car Drives All By Itself”. Knudsen’s energetic bass note drop to help start “Moving to New York” sent the sold-out mass in group motion and the sound of 1200 people clapping in unison helped propel 2011’s “Techno Fan”.
The new “Ready for the High’ brought out an actual trumpet-playing marsupial (ok, a guy in a furry wombat costume with a plastic toy instrument) that decided he needed to be center stage for his solo before losing his headpiece and being chased off by Murph and Tord as the song finished. The costumed wombats would later return in the set, multiplying into two, as a couple members of Clubhouse were determined to suit up and have some fun themselves.
Even though he’s re-located to sunny LA, it’s encouraging that Murph can still write a UK-dreary song like “Everything I Love is Going to Die”, a Cure/New Order homage made upbeat by its lyrical determination to live life to its fullest and the song’s own snappy rhythms. Fans knew all the words to 2007’s “Kill the Director” and Murph’s lemons-as-futility theme continued on 2018’s “Lemon to Knife Fight”, one of many songs inspired in part by his wife.
Murph taught everyone the chorus of the new “Wildfire” and the electro-pop of the obsessive “If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You,” lyrically makes it their “Every Breath You Take”. 2010’s “Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)” is admittedly the most “disco-y” song in their catalog which was a perfect excuse to dance, and the main set ended with 2015’s “Greek Tragedy”, given a huge second life as an Oliver Nelson remix went massively viral on TikTok (over 600,000 videos featuring the song!), resulting in an even bigger audience for the band.
The encore began with the fuzz throb of “Method To The Madness” set in Barcelona during Murph’s honeymoon when he made a cathartic breakthrough to let go of worry and forge his own way. The jangling intro of 2007’s “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” encouraged chants of “so happy!” and pogo-ing in place and the endearing chaos of 2018’s “Turn” and Murph singing, “Maybe it’s the crazy that I’d miss, it won’t get better than this” would end the evening.
“I don’t wanna lose myself in someone else’s game” is the lyric on the title track of The Wombats new Fix Yourself, Not the World, and after almost two decades of blazing their own trail and forging their own path to the success of a new Number One album, it’s clear that their musical uniqueness remains well-loved and best work may be yet to come.
(click on any image to enlarge and see in full)
The Wombats returned to Kansas City, to play a very sold-out Truman in the heart of downtown on a chilly winter night, in front of some very loyal fans.
The evening opened with an easygoing thirty-five-minute set from Clubhouse, a young indie pop band from Columbus, OH (now LA-based) in support of its new seven-song EP, Are We Going Too Slow? (on AWAL Recordings), which they managed to write and record amid chemotherapy treatments, multiple surgeries, and a global pandemic.
Vocalist/rhythm guitarist Max Reichert has had to battle cancerous tumors in his leg and lungs, but he and the band have emerged in a happier place, evident in their performance as the set progressed and the crowd soaked up the good feelings.
An early set MGMT cover stopped any errant crowd conversations to pay attention and the EP’s title comes from a statement the band reflects on itself that Reichert sings on the title song’s chorus, “Another day spent in your head/You’re taking life too slow”. Any opener that gets applause when they come back out to dismantle their own gear, is clearly gaining fans and becomes one to watch.
We told you so—
Originally hailing from Liverpool, The Wombats have been on our radar for over fifteen years and are now enjoying their biggest success to date with the January release of fifth studio album Fix Yourself, Not the World (on AWAL Recordings), their very first to Top the UK Album charts after going Top Five previously.
As a result of the ongoing pandemic and the band being in different corners of the world (singer/guitarist Murph – LA; bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen – Oslo; drummer Dan Haggis- London), the album was created remotely and handed to several noteworthy producers, with obviously successful end results. Their ninety-minute headlining set was the chance to hear the culmination of those efforts, as well as revisit older favorites.
The set opened as the new album does, with the fever dream funk punk of “Flip Me Upside Down” and Murph singing, “You flip me upside down, I’m kind of getting into it” followed by the helplessness of humanity embodied in an automated vehicle in “This Car Drives All By Itself”. Knudsen’s energetic bass note drop to help start “Moving to New York” sent the sold-out mass in group motion and the sound of 1200 people clapping in unison helped propel 2011’s “Techno Fan”.
The new “Ready for the High’ brought out an actual trumpet-playing marsupial (ok, a guy in a furry wombat costume with a plastic toy instrument) that decided he needed to be center stage for his solo before losing his headpiece and being chased off by Murph and Tord as the song finished. The costumed wombats would later return in the set, multiplying into two, as a couple members of Clubhouse were determined to suit up and have some fun themselves.
Even though he’s re-located to sunny LA, it’s encouraging that Murph can still write a UK-dreary song like “Everything I Love is Going to Die”, a Cure/New Order homage made upbeat by its lyrical determination to live life to its fullest and the song’s own snappy rhythms. Fans knew all the words to 2007’s “Kill the Director” and Murph’s lemons-as-futility theme continued on 2018’s “Lemon to Knife Fight”, one of many songs inspired in part by his wife.
Murph taught everyone the chorus of the new “Wildfire” and the electro-pop of the obsessive “If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You,” lyrically makes it their “Every Breath You Take”. 2010’s “Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)” is admittedly the most “disco-y” song in their catalog which was a perfect excuse to dance, and the main set ended with 2015’s “Greek Tragedy”, given a huge second life as an Oliver Nelson remix went massively viral on TikTok (over 600,000 videos featuring the song!), resulting in an even bigger audience for the band.
The encore began with the fuzz throb of “Method To The Madness” set in Barcelona during Murph’s honeymoon when he made a cathartic breakthrough to let go of worry and forge his own way. The jangling intro of 2007’s “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” encouraged chants of “so happy!” and pogo-ing in place and the endearing chaos of 2018’s “Turn” and Murph singing, “Maybe it’s the crazy that I’d miss, it won’t get better than this” would end the evening.
“I don’t wanna lose myself in someone else’s game” is the lyric on the title track of The Wombats new Fix Yourself, Not the World, and after almost two decades of blazing their own trail and forging their own path to the success of a new Number One album, it’s clear that their musical uniqueness remains well-loved and best work may be yet to come.
(click on any image to enlarge and see in full)
CLUBHOUSE |
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CLUBHOUSE |
CLUBHOUSE Max Reichert
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CLUBHOUSE SETLIST |
WOMBATS Dan Haggis
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WOMBATS Tord Knudsen
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WOMBATS Murph
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WOMBATS |
WOMBATS |
WOMBATS |
WOMBATS SETIST |
The Wombats at The Truman, Kansas City, MO (2022-02-05) |
| john (johnc@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |