Review of The Wombats at Southampton Guildhall, Monday, April 28.

SELDOM have I been to a show where there was such an air of anticipation as the mostly-teenaged crowd waited for the Liverpool-based trio to hit the stage.

The mood was jolly and jovial - everyone especially enjoyed singing along to 80s classic, Karma Chameleon, just before they came on.

And fun seems to be what this band is about. They've enjoyed tremendous success with a string of upbeat tunes from debut album, A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, since hitting the big time last year.

Their audience is largely a young one, judging by this gig, but they put in a strong hour-long set that had the whole room bouncing.

Every tune went down well due to the band's ability to pen easy-to-sing-to songs and the crowd went truly wild for the big hits, especially Let's Dance to Joy Division, which closed the main set.

It's always good when a band can do something to grab your attention from the start and the trio gave us an A Cappella tune along the lines of Girls, Boys and Marsupials - the title of an early album released only in Japan.

They engaged well with the audience between songs - even if this was probably a tactic to pad out their set a bit - and each song was delivered with strong vocals that sounded every bit as good as the original recording.

The opening track, Kill The Director, was a great way to get the show going with its melodic backing vocals and the set ended with latest single Backfire at the Disco.

As I said, it's always good when a band can grab your attention and anyone who went to this show will certainly remember the giant inflatable Wombat - complete with sunglasses - that emerged above the crowd before the encore.

Whether this band will be a long-term success remains to be seen, but on the strength of their live shows they are sure to continue to build up a devoted following.

9:45am Tuesday 29th April 2008

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