WHAT happens when a Liverpool band journey to the wrong side of the M62?

You might think carnage would ensue, but in the case of The Wombats things worked out surprisingly smoothly.

Smooth isn't necessarily a word you'd associate with the band who met as students at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, and whose early saccharine hits are characterised by bouncy beats and chant-along lyrics, but after their Manchester Academy performance it somehow makes sense.

Singles from The Wombats’ new album Glitterbug – named in homage to lead singer Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy's beloved Los Angeles – have a decidedly more adult feel.

The catchy choruses and tongue-in-cheek pop culture references are still there, but the lyrics to singles Greek Tragedy, Be Your Shadow and Emoticons reveal darker struggles.

In this year’s singles Your Body is a Weapon and Give Me A Try, too, sugary guitar has been replaced by pared-back synth and elastic bass, with eighties disco rhythms providing the danceability.

This is definitely not the fickle teenage angst of Kill The Director and Moving To New York from 2007 album A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation – although those singles, too, were played to the crowd’s delight – but something which ran little deeper.

The Wombats’ move to maturity was reflected in the audience.  

While the Academy welcomed its fair share of teeny boppers, most concert-goers were fans in their early and mid-20s who had grown up in pace with the band.

But we were still young enough to pogo with the best of ‘em, and did so enthusiastically to Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves), Jump Into The Fog and 1996 from second album This Modern Glitch and, plucked from earlier days, encore crowd pleaser Let’s Dance To Joy Division.

Like the superficial gloss of LA, though, there was something missing from certain performances and despite their polish, Glitterbug album tracks This Is Not A Party and Headspace felt a little empty.

Without the student nightclub appeal of earlier singles, I couldn’t help wondering if The Wombats had cast aside something integral in their quest for a more ‘serious’ sound.

The Wombats are also playing at London’s O2 Brixton Academy on April 13, Oxford on April 15, Glasgow on April 17, a homecoming gig at Liverpool’s O2 Academy on April 18 and Newcastle on April 19.