IT was fitting that frontman Matthew Murphy sang it "looks like Christmas came early" in Moving To New York, the opening song of The Wombats' triumphant first show in Newcastle on Friday night.
Indeed it felt like a festive event. There might not have been any Jingle Bells or tunes about good ole Saint Nick, but the crowd of 2500 packed into the Bar On The Hill's forecourt to party.
On a comfortable evening, and among the university's gum trees, it was the perfect atmosphere to enjoy one of the UK's seminal indie-pop bands of the past 15 years.
The evening began with Wollongong indie artist Tyne-James Organ, whose appearance and performance style could be described as a more enthusiastic and less cynical, Julian Casablancas.
Organ and his band, which included ex-Preatures guitarist Jack Moffitt, delivered an impressive set which almost certainly won new fans with their heartland-rock-meets-new-wave-pop dynamic.
Not Ready For Love and Sunday Suit were the highlights, especially as it allowed Organ to dispense with the acoustic guitar and show off his Mick Jagger-esque dance moves.
Anticipation built up within the crowd with jubilant singalongs of The Killers' Mr Brightside and OutKast's Hey Ya, but it was just a mere warm up for The Wombats.
The Liverpool three-piece have spent the year touring the globe and it showed. From the outset they were red hot and the well-trodden setlist hit all the sweet spots.
Ever since Let's Dance To Joy Division blew up on triple j in 2007, The Wombats have arguably been bigger in Australia than anywhere else in the world.
The Wombats have always been a cute and cuddly indie band that's consistently released decent tunes.
But it's not until you catch Murphy, Tord Overland Knudsen (bass) and Dan Haggis (drums) live that you gain a full appreciation of their ability as pop songsmiths.
Knudsen, in particular, was a dynamo on stage. Ripping out intricate bass lines while bouncing around like he was Chris Joannou in Silverchair's Frogstomp years.
The setlist touched on all five albums with older hits like Kill The Director, which included the crowd chanting "this is no Bridget Jones" and Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves) enjoying impassioned singalongs.
The audience constantly tossed animal toys on stage, which has become a Wombats tradition. Kookaburras were the preferred option at the Bar On The Hill.
"There's a lot of kookaburras up here," Murphy said. "I keep thinking they look like that gremlin Gizmo."
One fan caught Murphy's eye with a handmade sign which stated she'd seen the band at Canberra's Spilt Milk festival and at London's The O2.
While the older tracks drew the loudest singing, some of the newer material off their 2022 album Fix Yourself, Not the World offered the most interesting moments.
This Car Drives All by Itself was possessed by a hypnotic groove and I Think My Mind Has Made Its Mind Up off their month-old EP Is This What It Feels Like To Feel Like This? provided an interlude into '90s Britpop.
In between there were human-sized wombats dancing on stage, fireworks and a streamer cannon in the finale, Turn, which ended with the fitting lyric "it won't get better than this."
And of course they played Let's Dance To Joy Division and everyone left "so happy".
