More than 20 years since they first formed as a fresh-faced trio at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, The Wombats are still carving a consistent path through the indie world with
the release of their latest album “Oh! The Ocean”, which dropped in February.
Currently on their biggest headline tour to date, here at Leeds’ First Direct Arena they look at home in the city’s ‘super-theatre’ layout on the last night of the seven-date UK arena tour, before they head on to mainland Europe.
Opening up are fellow Merseysiders Red Rum Club. The Scouse six-piece look right at home on the arena stage, filling it not only because of the number of personnel, but with a sound that’s big enough to fill the most cavernous of spaces. Powerful vocals, searing trumpet stabs and upbeat rhythms, especially on their closer “Vanilla”, give the early crowd plenty to work with.
Indie-rock, art-rock, a bit of electronic pop, Everything Everything are a difficult band to pin to a genre, but their sound is perfect to get the crowd warmed up for the arrival of their
Liverpudlian heroes The Wombats.
Everything Everything have always gone down well in Leeds, and tonight is no different. Songs like “Distant Past” are hooky enough to get a lively response from the crowd, and closing out with their usual “No Reptiles”, leaves the stage set perfectly for The Wombats to take the baton and push the crowd into greater rapture.
As the headliners hit the stage one by one, they move straight into a new song, “Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come”, the first single from the latest album. It’s an interesting choice to kick things off…
Not least because it’s about people who wish they’d stayed at home, but reluctantly made it to wherever it was they were invited. Drawing on the title of Jessica Pan’s 2019 book, it’s a tale of introversion and a longing to get home and to get out of a social situation.
Somewhat ironically, it has the opposite effect on the crowd, who can’t wait to get stuck into the 22-song set that draws from every one of their studio albums. From the latest to the very beginning, “Moving To New York” appeared on their first release way back in 2006 and makes a welcome appearance in the set list tonight. “These are deep cuts Leeds”, says lead singer Matthew Murphy. “Deep cuts.”
Half a dozen songs feature from the new record, which is in itself an ode to introversion and anxiety. It’s an interesting contradiction with the feeling inside the arena, and speaks to the classically British self-deprecating humour that typifies Murphy’s chat throughout the set.
“Here’s another song about me being a muppet” jokes Murph, as he breaks into “Lethal Combination”, performing solo with just an acoustic guitar for company.
Despite being one of the worst lit arena shows I’ve seen – we spent a lot of time peering at backlit shadows on the stage – there is an undeniable sense of fun about a Wombats show. There’s very genuine on-stage chemistry, evident as there are little slip ups in the segues or sharing tales of the stir-craziness of being on the road for a while.
There’s even a tussle with a giant wombat with a trombone, which is a sentence I never imagined I would ever write!
This energy spills out into the crowd who are primed and ready to go for the full show, which runs to nearly two hours. For the most part, they bounce and dance around as one, but occasionally, this breaks into a full on circle pit.
Stretching wide as we approach the end of “Method to the Madness”, it explodes into life, wild in the centre, and with two or three breakaway mosh pits occupying other parts of the arena floor. As drummer Dan Haggis points out, it’s like throwing pebbles in a lake as the ripples continue to radiate into the crowd for the rest of the show.
There are some real highlights musically: “Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)” is probably the strongest song of the night, while the basslines that accompany “Moving to New York”, “I Love America,” and “She Hates Me” are sublime.
Saving perhaps their most famous song until the end of the main set, the crowd are more than willing to accept the invitation in the song “Let’s Dance to Joy Division”, as the giant wombats, five of them this time, return to the stage, pogoing back and forth armed with confetti cannons.
Rapturously welcomed back to the stage after the main set, the band quickly rattle through a three-song encore, culminating in “Greek Tragedy”; 10-years-old, but benefitting from a spell on TikTok in 2021.
The bouncing continues as giant colourful balloons drop from the ceiling and are batted around, before being carried out of the arena to continue the fun on the streets of Leeds. For those in the mosh pit, as Murph sang in “Turn”, “It won’t get better than this”.
- Six shows – Newcastle, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Dublin, Belfast and Blackpool – with support from The Snuts – have just been announced for December 2025.
Leeds show set list
1. Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come
2. Moving to New York
3. Cheetah Tongue
4. Techno Fan
5. Kate Moss
6. Ready for the High
7. 1996
8. Pink Lemonade
9. I Love America and She Hates Me
10. Kill the Director
11. My Head Is Not My Friend
12. Lethal Combination
13. Blood On The Hospital Floor
14. Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)
15. The World’s Not Out To Get Me, I Am
16. Method to the Madness
17. Lemon to a Knife Fight
18. If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You
19. Let’s Dance to Joy Division
Encore
20. Can’t Say No
21. Turn
22. Greek Tragedy
Words & Photos: Huw Williams
