Tuesday night, New York welcomed The Wombats (@thewombats) with a sold out crowd at Bowery Ballroom. While the bars were scantily filled, the front of the stage was packed with those arriving early to reserve their general admission space to see the British band.

The single opening slot for the night which was filled by Texas band, Wild Party. With such a descriptive name, the quintet certainly played to a crowd with high expectations prior to their arrival onstage. Though they put their best foot forward with synthesized melodies and catchy pop hooks, the band wasn’t as wild as their name suggested. They did, however, provide a satisfactory set to warm up the crowd for the night’s headliners.

When The Wombats arrived on stage, the intensity of screams and roars from the crowd rattled the floor, commencing a real wild party as they delved into to their set. The songs, played with few breaks in between, ranged from moderately to manically fast, and all were crowd favorites. Lead singer Murph admitted that he was embarassed to play “Moving to New York” in New York, but the crowd welcomed the song with open arms and continued their support. Bassist Tord Øverland-Knudsen leaped from stage left to stage right in a matter of seconds, feeding off the crowd’s energy. All the while, drummer Dan Haggis kept the mania going with a marathon of fast rhythms from beginning to end.

Trying to stay still at The Wombats’ show is a nearly impossible feat. The wooden floors of Bowery felt like the springs of a creaky mattress as everyone jumped as high, as fast and as hard as possible. With everyone bouncing up and down in unison, it would simply be awkward not to do the same. The band ended the night perfectly with “Let’s Dance to Joy Division”. The crowd fist pumped, swayed, and even kissed, as the stage diving and crowd surfing from each Wombat left the audience speechless. The group definitely left their fans in a joyful stupor.