• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Oct 26, 2021 By Andy Von Pip Photography by Andy Von Pip Web Exclusive

The opening night of Wet Leg’s sold-out debut UK headline tour kicks off at Manchester’s Night and Day Cafe and the atmosphere is crackling with anticipation. Wet Leg’s ascent has been nothing short of phenomenal, a situation which the band seem to have embraced with delight and disbelief in equal measure.

Honeyglaze open the evening’s proceedings and certainly have an interesting take on dreamy swirling guitar-based pop. Comprised of vocalist and guitarist Anouska Sokolow, bassist Tim Curtis, drummer Yuri Shibuichi, and recently signed to the discerning Speedy Wunderground label they quietly craft an elegantly understated shoegaze tinged set. Unfortunately, one of the least missed elements of attending gigs, that of the Bassoon-voiced miscreant chatting with abandon throughout a set raises its head and becomes quite distracting. This is the sort of person who couldn’t read a room if it had twenty-foot neon letters flashing “shut the f**k up” and an arrow pointing at their head. Which is a shame as this is delicate intricate sweeping music that demands and deserves your attention. As Honeyglaze finish a punter turns to me remarking sarcastically, “Good job they’ve finished, people can carry on talking undisturbed now!”

Wet Leg have no such issues, arriving on the stage to music from Lord Of The Rings no less, they are greeted like conquering heroes, which is remarkable given that the band have only released two singles thus far. The duo of Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale has certainly struck a chord with the public via the impossible to get out of your head “Chaise Longue” and the equally enigmatic earworm “Wet Dream” and tonight they demonstrate there’s much more to them than a song inspired by an upholstered sofa in the shape of a chair that is long enough to prop your wet legs upon. Teasdale is an enigmatic and engaging frontperson and initially looks somewhat taken aback by the audiences enthusiastic welcome. “This is the bit where I say we’re Wet Leg,” she laughs “but I assume you already know that as you’ve bought tickets to see us.” Later when a male voice interrupts her, bellowing “I love you” she doesn’t miss a beat and shoots back “I love you too Mum.” At one stage she seems to be mumbling “piece of shit” to her guitar and then looks up and says “oh sorry, that’s the name of the next song!” It is, as the title suggests, a wonderfully acerbically spiky track apparently aimed at an ex.

The band exude a real sense of fun and each song without exception is cheered to the rafters. Songs such as “I Don’t Want To Go Out”, “Obvious” “UR Mum,” “Supermarket” all provide proof positive that Wet Leg is very much the real deal and the whole band play with a cohesion and tightness that belies their lack of live experience.

It’s an incredibly joyful uplifting occasion, full of humour, clever wordplay, driving guitar riffs, swirling synths and Wet Leg are exactly the band the world needs right now after a dreadful few years, dominated by a pandemic, societal division and economic meltdown. This is fun with a capital F. Personally, I’ve not seen a band since perhaps Wolf Alice in their infancy who have sounded this good at this stage of their career. Teasdale and Chambers have created something very special and unique with Wet Leg and their debut album for Domino Records can’t come soon enough.

Before their final track, Teasdale waits for the applause to subside and looks genuinely touched as she admits to feeling quite overwhelmed by the response. She then says “thank you, this is our final song.” It needs no introduction and the venue explodes into a joyous moshpit.

Are Wet Leg the most excitingly idiosyncratic band to emerge from the UK in recent years? Absolutely. Go see them and fall in love.

2021 US Dates

Wed, December 8th - Union Pool New York, NY

Thu, December 9th - Baby’s All Right Brooklyn, NY

Tue, December 14th - The Moroccan Lounge Los Angeles, CA

Wed, December - 15th Rickshaw Stop San Francisco, CA

Wet Leg official website