LIVE REVIEW
24/03/2025 - The wombats, Ao arena Manchester
Credit: AO Arena via Instagram (@aoarena)
Words by Jord Hailwood
The Wombats are truly spectacular. I enjoyed watching Liverpool’s most famous three-piece band live at the AO Arena in Manchester on Saturday evening (22nd March 2025).
I have beautiful nostalgic memories with The Wombats, and every time I have the opportunity to see them live, my experience tends to differ. When I think of The Wombats, initially, I think of how I discovered their music by watching Gavin and Stacey as a youngster, as well as The Inbetweeners.
I also remind myself of the multiple times I’ve seen them at Reading Festival: dehydrated, being squashed like a sardine, just so I can witness one of the best UK bands from the twenty-first century.
The Wombats embarked on their Oh! The Ocean Tour to promote their sixth studio album, Oh! The Ocean. The Liverpool trio swiftly began approximately two minutes after their alleged starting time, 9:02 pm, which is super impressive for any performing artist nowadays. The show began with Sorry I’m late, I didn’t want to come, the lead single from their new album. Immediately, the Manchester crowd starts screaming from the top of their lungs. The energy in the arena is buzzing and the fun is yet to begin.
The show proceeds into a fan favourite as the band plays Moving to New York, one of the first hits which helped The Wombats achieve indie-pop UK royalty. At this point, the atmosphere is electric. You can’t help but feel a sense of wholesomeness, getting to hear these songs live, which have become so heavily enriched within UK culture.
One of my biggest praises regarding The Wombats is that they’ve always been able to provide a fair variety of songs within their shows. What I mean by that is they’re able to find a fair balance: providing the OG fan favourites which created their stardom whilst not neglecting their newer material, which may not be as popular or familiar to their fans.
The show continues, and the energy only proceeds to mesmerise me and remind me why this band is so special to me. I think something that allows The Wombats to stand out from so many acts nowadays is their relatability. Their lyrics provide a safe place whilst entailing that playful, joyful element, which reminds me of my carefree, youthful days when I wasn’t stressing about adulthood (I digress).
The Wombats, in particular Matthew and Dan, are extremely comical. The highlight for me was when Dan was introducing Method to The Madness, explaining how he’s seen fans create mosh pits, rowing gestures and other sort of obscure movements whilst this song is being played. Matthew interrupted and claimed Dan was introducing the wrong song. The crowd was in hysterics.
Credit: AO Arena On Instagram (@aoarena)
The show finished with, yet again, some well-known fan favourites: Turn and Greek Tragedy. At this point, the crowd is partially bouncing up and down on the ground whilst the rest of the crowd is sitting on the floor, synchronised with rowing gestures. A set of colourful balloons are then dropped from the ceiling, which adds to the ongoing cheers coming from the Manny crowd. This can be seen as the perfect final addition to conclude the night at a Wombats concert.
The Wombats are a prime example of the ever-lasting significance of Indie-Pop in the UK. Selling out arenas nearly twenty years after their debut album, Proudly Present… A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation is unfortunately not a common story in recent times. This is easily one of the best gigs I’ve been to. When you go to a concert and the fans are so loud you can't always hear the artists themselves, you know they’re doing something right.
Rating: 5/5
Listen to Oh! The Ocean Here
