By Alfie Dook
Manchester was alive on Saturday night – but the attention wasn’t towards Old Trafford, or the Etihad—instead, it was the AO Arena.
Returning for a massive UK Arena tour, following their 6th album release, and ahead of their busy 2025 festival season, The Wombats brought their signature energy to the home of music.
Known for their indie rock tunes, and often compared to the likes of Two Door Cinema Club, The Kooks, and Circa Waves; The Wombats have been blessing our ears since 2003.
The Liverpool trio have conquered it all: four top 5 albums, and a number 1 in the charts, alongside three Glastonbury appearances, headline spots at most major UK festivals, and over 1.8 billion streams across platforms.
In October of last year, their hit single Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come, was released, and the excitement of fans sparked, as they finally had confirmation, another album, and surely—a tour—was on its way. Released this year on Valentine’s Day, their album, Oh! The Ocean, is a joy to listen to and fits right in with The Wombats’ classics.
This weekend was my chance to experience it live, and what an experience it was.
Opening the night were fellow Liverpudlians, Red Rum Club, who have been taking the UK by storm recently, blending indie pop with a range of new instruments.
A band of both quality and quantity as a 6 piece, they performed their biggest hits including Would You Rather Be Lonely, Vanilla, and Eleanor.
They were the perfect openers, quickly building the energy of the eager Manchester crowd, and setting a new standard for support acts. Frontman, Fran Doran, had the attitude and stage presence of a young Alex Turner, who drew the crowd into each and every word with his vocals, supported, and built upon, by Joe ‘the blow’ Corby’s powerful trumpet (and equally brilliant nickname).
I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t seen any bands with a live brass section before, but their unique spin on the indie pop genre is incredible to listen to, blended seamlessly with your typical guitar, bass, and drums. It was an all-round great set, and a great start to the night. Their biggest headline show this year is at Aintree Racecourse in May—you don’t want to miss out!
Keeping momentum going, the next act on stage was the highly anticipated, Everything Everything. Darkness masked the stage on their arrival, with the movement of faint outlines sparking an eruption from the crowd.
The euphoric vocal introduction of The Mad Stone began, and the set was underway. A 40-second buildup teased the crowd, as volume and power increased—a perfect metaphor for Everything Everything’s performance. It built and built, resulting in an immense result.
Everything Everything’s experimental rock and pop had the crowd in awe, with their 17 years’ experience and skill in the business of entertaining prevailing throughout.
With a mix of their biggest hits and new tracks, they perfectly encapsulated the attention of the arena. I’d love to see them again sometime soon.
Now, whilst the collective of Red Rum Club and Everything Everything were brilliant, nothing could prepare us for what we were treated to next.
9pm hit and quite ironically—on time—the opening beats of Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come echoed out. It’s safe to say the UKs second biggest arenas speakers weren’t going to be the loudest in the room that night, as they were effortlessly beaten by the sheer noise of the crowd, as the silhouettes of Matthew Murphy, Tord Øverland Knudsen, and Dan Haggis entered the stage.
The introduction developed, and that 4-word count everyone had been waiting for, hit: ‘One, two, three, yeah’.
The vibrant lights blasted and transcended the senses, coinciding with the opening verse of the first song of the night.
While Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come is a new addition to The Wombats discography, it certainly didn’t feel like it. Not a single breath was saved by the audience, who chanted every word back to the Trio.
It was a spectacular start to the set, and it only ramped up from there, with a nice surprise to the fans, as the lads transitioned straight into fan favourite, Moving to New York.
I’d argue that the biggest grin in the 22,000-capacity venue belonged to me in that moment, as a completely surreal feeling hit me, and the chords that have grown to become so nostalgic to my childhood pulsed through both the camera, and me—mere metres away from the band.
I thought this would be the pinnacle, but the set continued in its perfect curation, with the sounds of Cheetah Tongue and Techno Fan (a personal favorite of mine), came to follow.
Murph, Tord, Dan, and their team, did an incredible job of their song selection: the perfect mix of tunes from 2007 through to 2025, sending the audience on audiovisual journey.
I previously got the chance to catch up with Tord, the bass player, about the newest album, in an interview before the tour, and his list of inspirations for the 12-song record now become more than apparent when experiencing the album in its near entirety, live.
Alongside the major influence of ‘significant life milestones’, like having kids and getting married, to the more musical influences of ‘everything from Radiohead to Gorillaz to the Strokes to LCD Soundsystem, Talking Heads [and] David Bowie’ are clear, and have been perfectly fused to create a unique but familiar feel, with that necessary added Wombat flare.
Answering my question of the ‘best part about coming back to record another album with the lads’ (and John Congleton, after 2022s Fix Yourself, Not the World), Tord had said that they’d ended up recording the album with more of a ‘live feeling’ this time around, which they found ‘refreshing’ and more enjoyable at the LA studio. This creation process perfectly translated into the live performance – with the likes of Can’t Say No, I Love America and She Hates Me, and Blood on the Hospital Floor all going down a treat with the crowd, who lapped up every second.
The night’s antics were both hilarious and unforgettable: human-sized Wombat appearances, rowing on the arena floor, confetti cannons, and a flashlight-lit acoustic solo of Lethal Combination, by Murph, to slow things down.
The Wombats made sure to leave no one displeased, including every single one of the biggest and best hits in their 22-song setlist.
While some artists get frustrated and gain a dislike for their most popular songs, The Wombats appreciate where things began, and, where things took off for them.
Scattered throughout, Pink Lemonade, Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves), Kill the Director, Lemon to a Knife Fight, and Let’s Dance to Joy Division, quite obviously received an overwhelming reception, before they left the stage for their ‘fake finish’, as Murph amusingly stated to the crowd.
The final three-song encore was highly appreciated by the fans, with the last surges of energy of the crowd harnessed in a spectacular fashion, by Murph, Tord, and Dan, creating a flawless finish to an unforgettable night.
Turn and Greek Tragedy finished the set out, with an extravagant balloon drop to finalise the party, creating an ethereal visual looking down from the stands.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing over 50 bands live in the last 12 months, and it is more than safe to say that The Wombats are right there alongside the top of the pack.
This gig is definitely one I will look back at with the fondest of memories, and it’s easy to argue the newest hits of Oh! The Ocean, will one day bring the same nostalgic feeling to new fans, that I experienced with A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation.
With so much more to come – including a European, US, and Australian Tour, now joined with additional UK winter dates, alongside their packed UK festival season – it’s safe to say 2025 is going to be a great year for The Wombats, and a truly deserved one at that.
Photography & Text Copyright 2025 © Alfie Dook/ADRENALINE Magazine.
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