The Wombats @ Riverstage, 26 Sep, 2025
For a seasoned veteran of The Wombats’ live show, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is just any other concert experience packed to bursting with indie pop hits, but now, 14 years on from the first time this reviewer saw the Liverpudlian trio take to the Riverstage, catching them live comes with the added bonus of seeing how they’ve adapted their setlist to their personal and musical growth.
They still bang out the sure-fire crowd-jostlers like Moving To New York and Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves), but it’s how they use those fan favourites as puncuation in a setlist that now has to balance six albums’ worth of material. With a decent showing from their latest album and the penultimate, it feels like the selected late-era songs were chosen specifically for how raucous they can be played live, with big, bold jam sections that don’t require the more finnicky technicality of some of the older hits. Then, right off the back of those explosive jams, audiences are treated to the familiar synth stings of tracks like Techno Fan or 1996, ensuring that the set is constantly zipping forward with energy and momentum.
There are, of course, some fallen soldiers we must pour one out for; once sitting firmly in the fan-favourite section of the setlist, tracks like Jump Into the Fog from “This Modern Glitch”, or Emoticons and Give Me A Try from “Glitterbug” have hit the omission pile, but their absence feels less like a glaring hole and more like a longing for a nostalgic time. But, that’s barely a criticism when track after track each felt like a gem from their honestly impressive six-LP run coming to life with the three high-energy band members giving it their all.
P.S. Special shouts to the band’s tongue-in-cheek nod to their upcoming encore about four tracks from the end. More bands should take a leaf out of this book.
Check out our interview with Dan from the Wombats here!
Words by Max Higgins and photos by Kelsey Nagel.
