Earth Day Show: The Wombats Concert Review

This Saturday, English indie-rock band The Wombats celebrated their third appearance in Rhode Island, proceeding many of the day’s tree-hugging festivities at Roger Williams Park. Their performance at The Met cultivated one of the best, most spirited-crowds the venue has ever seen by far – with the lead singer, Matthew Murphy encouraging the audience to “dance like headless chickens” whenever the opportunity presented itself.   With hardly any pause in-between songs, it became very easy to maintain the positive and free-spirited atmosphere, as the band virtually entered the stage and began to belt the all-too-familiar riffs to “Your Body is a Weapon” from their most-recent album Glitterbug. A very smart tactic the band used to keep the crowd’s engagement at a maximum was to follow up their first hit with an even bigger hit! When the opening commenced to “Jump into the Fog”, one of their biggest songs to date, the energy level peaked at an all-time high and was easily sustained up until the very last note.  Throughout the night, all three of the band’s members took turns entertaining the audience with some light humor in between songs, in only the cheekiest Brit-fashion. At one time, Murphy very politely urged members of the audience to dance, then qualifying the statement with “…but only if you would like to.” As the night continued, the band managed to complement every new song with an older one to ensure an elegant balance of anticipation and familiarity, an element the audience appreciated immensely as the floor essentially morphed into a marathon dance party.   In deference to the day, the band dedicated a new song entitled, “Be Your Shadow” to “all the trees in the world because we wouldn’t be here without them.” They also recapped a few of the earlier events from that afternoon in the park, such as jokingly admitting to their failed attempt to hug the most trees in a single setting and thanking all of their fans who had come out to meet them on both occasions. The concert was also successful in drawing a crowd of all ages, making the night that much more enjoyable for all who were involved. As The Wombats concluded their set with the encore of crowd-favorite “Let’s Dance to Joy Division,” the Murphy departed with the words: “If tonight is in fact, a Saturday, then you all should be having fun.”  The perfect farewell to a performance filled with one-of-a-kind musical expression and whimsicality.

Check out all the photos from Roger Williams Park and The Met below!

 

Photos courtesy of staff photographer Lauren Galvan

Roger Williams Park w/ Wombats

  Photos courtesy of staff photographer Beth Desta  

The Wombats @ The Met!