The Wombats @ Brooklyn Paramount

By Marek Alban

For fear of causing this review to be about the Brooklyn Paramount instead of the Wombats, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves. The band came out to Helter Skelter, which was cool. First things first, they have a trumpeter, cool. Secondly, is the
lead singer was doing his best Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode wardrobe wise? I dig. But first impressions were solid… and then I realized this was the opening band. I wasn’t aware there was one but cool. I believe their name was Red Rum Club? But they said they were from Liverpool, so that’s neat.

The band had strong and solid energy both from themselves and from the crowd, and then they proceeded to go into this countryish song which was neat. Solid playing, solid singing, solid trumpeting, solid crowd work, solid songs, they came on with it strong for an opening band. I recommend them. One song even had the Al Pacino “ho-hah” as part of it, how could I not recommend them? Anyways, I hung around in the downstairs lounge while Red Rum Club played a pastiche of Miserlou by Dick Dale, and they just kept on having a good time, as did I. Me and my dad tried remembering the name of the second band, Only the Poets.

Only the Poets came in with a cool moody intro and got right to it with a sort of post-punky vibe that I could get down with. They thanked the crowd for a cool show (which is always a good sign) and they got off to a good start. Between the great crowd work and the songs being solid, I’d say these two openers have a good shot of being bigger names. The next song kind of gave me vibes of The Stone Roses’ I Wanna Be Adored, which is an all-time classic, so another notch for these guys. Really, I didn’t have much else to say about the rest of the set, they just did good and played some solid tunes, while I went down in the lounge from before. I cannot stress enough, amazing venue.
Eventually, the Wombats arrived to rapturous applause with some cool lights as well,

saying hello to the crowd and launching into a solid opening number. The crowd generally bopped along, as did I, so good start to the end. The crowd seemed to light up Significantly at the second song, which I suppose is a fan favorite. One thing that stood out to my dad was the bassist’s tone and playing, being in the spritely post punk style that I always appreciate. The lead singer really did a great job of interacting with the crowd, telling a story of when he lived in the Brooklyn area. And I must say, all three bands really used their lights well, each one had their own choices and styles that fit like gloves.

By the end the lead singer got everyone to wave their phone lights in unison which was cool. Overall, I’m very impressed by all three of these bands. They each turned in a fun show that complimented one another while standing on their own. Plus, the venue was just ethereal, so I’m glad to have seen all three bands live.