If the Mersey isn’t your nearest river, then there’s a good chance you've never heard of The Wombats. Well, time to listen up because this three-piece, consisting two-parts Scouse and one-part Scandinavian, are proving to be one of the success stories to emerge from this year's Manchester-based ‘In The City’ event. Melding early Supergrass and Blur with twists of the Cure, their witty animations of modern British life could see pouch-punk popularity soar.
Building their fanbase by playing the Liverpool gig circuit alongside city mates and mysongbird favourites, The Alterkicks, it was a good showing at 'In The City' that catapulted the band into the consciousness and playlists of new music kingmakers Zane Lowe, Huw Stevens and Steve Lamacq. So, with such well placed airplay and a forthcoming UK gig list as long as their combined arms, it's safe to say 2007 will be busy for the 'bats.
Tonight, after introducing themselves with an impressive barbershop quartet (minus one) performance, The Wombats begin in earnest with ‘Dr Suzanne Mattox...’ - a tune about a happy GP that ensures the joy rapidly spreads through the room. Frontman ‘Murph’ proves that men can multitask by interspersing guitar duties with stints on the tiniest keyboard in all creation; a great addition to any performance. The resulting intro to the brilliant ‘Lost in the Post’ sounds like something from The Strokes' debut album.
As they work through the short set, every chorus is a catchy as the last and is choc-full of well executed, simple vocal harmonies. The Beach Boys and Futureheads influence is not lost here. Captivating baselines and high tempo drumming bring to mind a sound that Maximo Park might produce if they loosened their ties and had some fun.
The boys finish with their latest single release, the anthemic ‘Moving To New York’, which at the time of writing is Colin Murray’s ‘Song of the week’ and it really gets the crowd shuffling. The strength of their debut album ‘Boys, Girls and Marsupials’ released on Vinyl Junkie Recordings in September indicates that this surely is a band in the foetal stages of a career of great potential. The early acclaim is warranted and with so many gigs planned there’s no reason why you can’t go and cheer them as they try to claw their way to the top, marsupial style.
