There are a number of things Oh Wonder have a track record of doing while touring Australia.
The first is to arrive on the back of a festival. The second is to sell-out their side show.
When they first arrived on Australian soil back in 2016, the British duo of Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony Ward were here for Falls Fest. Having just released their debut 'Oh Wonder', they had originally booked to open at Metro Theatre as well as headline on the humble stage of Newtown Social but were forced to upgrade the latter to Oxford Art Factory due to demand.
Now not even a fortnight into their second album 'Ultralife', the pair have returned and are amping it up like never before. This time 'round they’ve come for Splendour In The Grass. And as track records go, sold out their side show at Metro Theatre (24 July) almost immediately, forcing them not to go bigger, but longer instead, extending onto a second show at the Factory Theatre tomorrow (25 July). That too has sold out.
Like their latest record, Oh Wonder’s show tonight is louder and punchier than ever. It follows opener Alice Ivy who picked up the gig on the fly in the wee hours of the morning after OKBadlands pulled out. Decked in a white jumpsuit and armed with her Macbook, mixing kit and mint-coloured electric guitar, Ivy played and danced to an audience that warmed to her fast.
Oh Wonder’s entrance, however, was delayed, the band teasing us for 15 minutes past their on-stage time before finally kicking things off with the energetic 'Ultralife' single ‘High On Humans’ coupled with a spectacular neon lights show, complete with their signature ceiling-high OW lighting backdrop.
Despite having just released their long-awaited follow-up, Oh Wonder refused to force the new material to the front of stage belting out only four of its tracks throughout the evening preferring to “dance up” some of their older works. Suffice to say, oldie ‘Dazzle’ was second off the mark. Vander Gucht tinkering with the keys as well as the skies, lifting the audience and making their senses tingle with delight.
The pace slowed down for that mandatory acoustic number early, with the two laying on some country twang around ‘All We Do’. It’s a track Vander Gucht said really summed up what the band has been up to between albums, pushing their music and pursuing their dreams.
A string of goodies kept the party going, Oh Wonder belting out winners that turned the crowd into singers and groovers. They bounced to the beats of 'Midnight Moon’ and 'Lose It', swayed to the tune of ‘Technicolour Dream’ and ‘Body Gold’ and returned the words to every single song as if it were their own.
In between tracks, there is graciousness and that unmistakable adorable joyfulness that Vander Gucht tends to display on stage, as she remarks how they were openers inside The Metro last year, liking it to an arena and how amazing it was that they were now headlining the venue this year.
On several occasions she gushes over this being the best Australian audience and at the end of the show, ran around like a giddy school-child with her camera recording us.
'Ultralife’s title track came out swinging in the encore, but it was ‘Drive' that capped the night off in a burst of neon lights, swaying arms and addictively beautiful vocals. Expect bigger and better next year. Oh, as well as more sold-out shows.
