The Wombats, Static Jacks, & Flagship @ The Middle East, Boston, MA - April 24, 2012
Review: Dave Bolton
So here we are again, it’s another “popular” band from the UK playing in a venue that seems slightly small. If I was confused by the sight of Kasabian failing to sell out the House of Blues in Boston, I am slightly baffled by The Wombats playing in front of 575 people in Cambridge.
To be fair, the show was sold out. It’s just the venue is very small. Put it this way, there wasn’t a lot of room to move about once the headline band came on. If you wanted to see a quirky band from Liverpool surrounded by drunk students and the indie fashionistas that frequent Cambridge MA, then The Middle East was the place to be.
There is no doubt that The Wombats are quirky. They have songs that talk about drinking champagne with Schumacher (I presume Michael, it could be Ralf but they are soccer fans so it might even be Harold/Toni) or dancing to Joy Division. They are a three-piece band that bound on stage with energy and play their brand of indietronica with nothing less than total competency.
They got the crowd moving, they engaged in banter and they played some half-decent songs. I didn’t dislike what they were doing, I tapped my feet in all the right places and I even sang along to "Kill The Director," agreeing wholeheartedly that this is no Bridget Jones.
But like so many things in my musical life, I found myself asking one question; would John Peel have played them on his radio show?
