THE WOMBATS END THEIR US TOUR AT T5

Spooky haunting music played as strobes flashed red and white throughout Terminal 5. After quite the anticipation, 3 “Womcats” emerged from the wings. Their faces were painted with whiskers and their heads adorned with furry ears. This was Liverpool rockers, The Wombats’ last show of their US tour supporting their newest release Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. “We’re not going to let my shitty voice box get in the way of this,” lead vocalist and guitarist Matthew Murphy said to the crowd as he kept the party going.

Opening up the show that night was bluesy rocker Barns Courtney. He stepped on stage looking like he belonged at Woodstock with his perfectly scraggly hair, white blousy shirt and feather accents. He hair whipped and stage-dived throughout his set, being as inclusive with the audience as possible. The crowd rocked out to hits like “Fire,” “99,” and “Glitter & Gold.”

Barns Courtney

Barns Courtneyv

Barns Courtney

It was hard to take The Wombats seriously in their Halloween get-up, especially when one of Murphy’s fake eyelashes flew off in the middle of their set. “I was hoping my fake eyelashes were going to fall off in a much more erotic way than they just did,” Murphy said with a laugh as he peeled off the other one.

The Wombats

TW

The Wombats

TW

The Wombats

TW

Their set consisted of some songs off of Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life with hits like “Turn” and “Cheetah Tongue,” but also one of my favorites, “Lemon to a Knife Fight” – such a beautiful and horrifying metaphor! The majority of their set consisted of older songs including some songs off of Glitterbug – they closed out their encore with “Greek Tragedy” – and nostalgic favorites from Proudly Present…A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation like “Moving to New York” and “Let’s Dance to Joy Division.” As they closed their main set with the latter, the crowd was jumping up and down chanting “so happy!” when a group of giant wombats in cheerleader outfits ambushed the stage. What’s happier than that?