Concert Review: Wombats and Courtship at The Pageant

On Thursday, January 18 2018, 105.7 The Point welcomed The Wombats, Courtship, and Nation of Language to The Pageant. Despite it being a week day event and frigid temperatures, the attendees were ready to heat up The Pageant with a descent crowd staking out their spots in anticipation of the line up.

Fog drifted across the stage front tinged with a red and purple hue to set the atmosphere for the first band, Nation of Language. The color filtering light production was out shined by this alternative indie bands groovey synth space and visual theatrics from lead vocalist Ian Devaney. One of their new releases “On Division Street” has an 80s electro pop sound that ripples under the echoes of reminiscing lyrics. The tempo picked up on “What Does The Normal Man Feel?”, as the crowd began swaying along with Devaney’s  dance moves, which created an artistic added element to the performance. On “I’ve Thought About Chicago” the whispery vocal arrangement has sudden bursts of emotion that amped up the crowd. The last track of their set was “Haunted”, which coincidently had a catchy spooky intro nostalgic of the Monster Mash groove. The Nation of Language was most certainly speaking a language of rhythm and mood to their audience.

It was a blast of bright bursting energy as the indie-pop group Courtship mastered the stage like veterans, although stating that they just wrote their first song “Stop for Nothing” last year in their bedroom.  A lead duo of Eli Hirsh and Micah Gordon were paired closely on stage together with guitar and keyboard, bouncing energy effortlessly off one another. Courtship performed their track “Perfect People”, with a cool vibe and catchy, charming hook. The track “Sail Away” is more lyrically melancholic, but bittersweet as it still leaves the audience floating on their signature upbeat tempo.  The band synced together for a moment of pure head banging before amplifying the hype by paying homage with the funky classic “Hey Ya!” by OutKast. The contagious energy continued with performances of a fresh new release “Tell Me, Tell Me” and “Stop for Nothing”.

It was impressive to see how many more fans started piling into The Pageant as show time for The Wombats crept closer. As a siren effect started sounding, the pit area became jammed packed as swirling lights grazed across the crowd. The Wombats opened with a psychedelic single from their new album “Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life” due out February 9th. The lead vocalist Matt Murphy’s accent soared on “Give Me a Try” as the packed crowd synchronized clapping actually over powered the instrumentals. The white beams of light radiating down on the performers during “1996”, was reminiscent of the flash lights in that music video. Another new track off their upcoming album titled “Black Flamingo” had a more introspective shift, as the harmonizing pitch plays with electro arpeggios similar to another well known English band called Muse. They treated long term fans to a first album cut of “Here Comes the Anxiety” with an acoustic solo at the mic as the crowd chanted along. The Wombats brought the lyrics of “Jump into the Fog” to reality with coordinating leaps into the air, while pounding the guitar. The encore closed out with tracks of “Turn”, “Tokyo”, and “Greek Tragedy” as their original costumed wombat mascot crawled across the stage and awkwardly disappeared to close out the set.

It was significant of The Wombats fan loyalty base to witness the crowd rock out the entire massive set list until the very end. It was equally amplifying the amount of tracks the fans chanted loud enough to carry over even the instrumentals at times. The Pageant’s manipulation of light production to convey pivotal connecting moments between the attendees and the artist was on point. Nation of Language, Courtship, and The Wombats all crafted varying vibrations that rippled through the crowd, creating a unifying groovy sway and evening for all. The Wombats new album “Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life” debuts on February 9th.