Wet Leg returned to sold-out O2 Academy Brixton ahead of the release of their highly anticipated sophomore album in July. They are back in full splendour, and then some.
I have definitely missed Wet Leg, since their breath-of-fresh-air eponymous debut album, which was both critically and commercially successful and helped us out of our post-Covid misery.
Since then, the Isle of Wight twosome – Rhian Teasdale on lead vocals and guitar and Hester Chambers on lead guitar and vocals – have expanded into a fully fledged five-piece band. They’ve assimilated their touring band, who have contributed to the songwriting on their forthcoming album Moisturizer, set to be released in July.
They opened their set with the majestic current single ‘catch these fists’. As the lights lowered the visuals of Rhian flexing her muscles, whilst the band was dressed all in white was very powerful and from that moment on they owned the stage.
The lyrics full of swagger:
I know all too well just what you’re like
I don’t want your love, I just wanna fight
Rhian has come into her own as a frontwoman, strutting the stage with the audience eating out of the palm of her hand. She looked genuinely happy and even a little bit in disbelief at how good being on stage with adoring fans and having your dreams come true really is.
Hester’s angular licks and riffs and also shaped the whole set. Even though she rarely moved up from the back of the stage, she exuded quietly confident indie rock badassery.
Older songs such as ‘Wet Dream’, ‘Piece of Shit’, ‘Too Late Now’ and one of my personal favourites ‘Ur Mum’ (with it’s iconic scream at the end) were met with euphoric applause and massive sing-alongs with the 5,000-strong crowd.
You said that you tried your best
Why’s this such a fucking mess?
You’re always so full of it
Yeah, why don’t you just suck my dick?
The newer material seems to have incorporated grit and a beefier sound, especially with the band now very tight and working in sync beautifully. The new songs with titles such as ‘davina mccall’, ‘mangetout’ and ‘pillow talk’ (after which Rhian let the full band to introduce themselves) blended in perfectly with the older material. Some of them had an anthemic quality and I could easily hear them being played in stadiums.
Wet Leg are still very much poking fun at the state of human relationships, with at times irony and at times exasperation.
Breakout smash hit ‘Chaise Longue’, was the penultimate song and of course met with huge cheers, a sing-along and lots of manic dancing from the audience.
Set closer ‘CPR’, which is the next single to be released on 27 May, about the joys of obsessional love, featured a good old-fashioned rotary telephone on stage, and Rhian building the tension as she tells the emergency operator that she’s in love. I’m looking forward to catching the video which was made by the band themselves.
The new era for Wet Leg can’t come quickly enough!
Opening were the eclectic and self-confessed ‘weepy chaos rock’ trio Mary and the Junkyard. Singer Clari’s voice is haunting and ethereal, with touches of iconic singers like The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan and Curve’s Toni Halliday.
Kicking off with previous single ‘ghost’ with its intricate picked guitar and semi-yodel vocal intro which sets the tone with its dreamlike and abstract lyrics.
On ‘Goop’ Saya switched to viola and Clari switched to bass guitar and they demonstrated both their musical versatility and the magic of sparse instrumental combination.
They closed their set with ‘Tuesday‘ a previous Track of the Day about the chaotic feelings induced by feeling alone in a big city.
The London trio’s inventiveness and DIY approach is refreshing and sets them apart in the indie-rock omniverse and I happily predict that they are destined for bigger things.
Catch them on tour with Wet Leg:
27 May Usher Hall, Edinburgh
28 May O2 Academy, Leeds
29 May O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester