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The Daily Tar Heel

Review: The Wombats took over Cat's Cradle prior to album release

Matthew Murphy, lead singer of The Wombats, performed at Cat's Cradle on Monday night. 

Matthew Murphy, lead singer of The Wombats, performed at Cat's Cradle on Monday night. 

It’s her first concert like this.

She stands against the metal railing at Cat’s Cradle awaiting the band she’s loved her whole life. Her glasses reflect the pink and red stage lights. At 11 years old, she’s attended stadium shows, but this is her first time at a small venue. Her mom stands directly behind her, only a little taller, keeping watch as she becomes a part of the crowd of teenagers and twenty-somethings. They drove from Greensboro just for this.

The Wombats performed at Cat’s Cradle on Monday night, giving a performance that would leave any fan with a smile on their face. The tour is prefacing the release of their new album “Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life,” available Feb. 9.

Their set was filled with fan favorites “Give Me A Try,” “Emoticons” and “Moving To New York” that had audience members singing and jumping along with lead singer Matthew Murphy. They also played newer singles and unreleased songs from their upcoming album.

The new songs experimented with more mature sounds driven by guitar and low synthesizers, while still sounding characteristically “Wombats.” Murphy’s accented vocals are unmistakable, set up against an upbeat backdrop that is recognizable to anyone who has heard one of their songs.

The audience itself was enthusiastic with each song, screaming old favorites while patiently bobbing along to new releases — from the moment before they took the stage, when a person in a plush wombat costume came on stage to “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine” by James Brown, to the mention of Mama Dip’s iconic cornbread, to the eruption of voices as they topped the show off with their best-known song, “Greek Tragedy.”

They weren’t the best performers I’d ever seen live — sometimes it felt like they rushed through their songs, and they didn’t particularly engage their audience in ways I have seen in previous shows at Cat’s Cradle. They didn’t seem particularly excited to be sharing their music.

Two acts opened for the British rockers: Nation of Language and courtship.

Nation of Language opened the show with a synth-heavy performance straight from your parents’ cassette tapes. Lead singer Ian Devaney paid homage to famous British frontmen Morrissey and Ian Curtis in his stage persona and vocal styling, crafting a sound that felt hazy and somber. It was jarring in comparison to the lively, upbeat music of The Wombats, but they were by no means lacking in musical talent.

The second opener, courtship., featured a modern electro-pop sound similar to artists like Foster the People or Moon Taxi. Their performance was marked with colorful flashing lights and excited cursing from the duo as they realized members of the audience knew the words to their songs. 

It was an energetic performance that felt like summer: their songs were fresh and upbeat, and there were people smiling and dancing in the audience. They are a band to watch as they gain popularity, and hopefully we’ll be seeing them on the Cat’s Cradle stage again sometime in the future.

The 11-year-old girl keeps looking back at her mother, smiling in awe. She is the one who introduced her daughter to them. She looks back at her reassuringly as they both mouth the words to the songs, lost in the colors and sounds.

@saralizp

arts@dailytarheel.com

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