After a seemingly overnight meteoric rise in popularity over the last year, Isle of Wight duo Wet Leg played a sold out show in Liverpool last week in support of their wildly-popular and critically acclaimed self-titled debut album; an album which just hours earlier had rightly earned the band five Grammy nominations.
Support came from West London artist Lava La Rue, who delivered a soulful, smooth blend of mellow lo-fi hip-hop and R&B, backed by a tight performance from their band. The artist received a great reception from the crowd, perfectly setting the tone for the headliners.
Entering the stage to the sound of Howard Shore’s ‘Concerning Hobbits’ from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, Wet Leg kicked into the first track from their debut, ‘Being in Love’, immediately followed by a straight run of several tracks also from the debut, including one of their breakout singles ‘Wet Dream’, to the delight of the audience.
Following this, guitarist and vocalist Rhian Teasdale took the time to introduce the band, and thanked the crowd for attending. The next run of songs included two unreleased tracks, titled aptly amongst internet forums as ‘Obvious’ and ‘I Want to Be Abducted (By a UFO)’, both truly deserving of a studio release.
The rest of the show consisted of almost the entirety of their debut, including singles ‘Angelica’, and ‘Ur Mum’, which evoked a cathartic and lengthy scream from the crowd after the line ‘I’ve been practising my longest and loudest scream, okay, here we go, one, two, three’.
Of course, Wet Leg had saved their breakthrough debut single till last with ‘Chaise Longue’, a track which immediately saw viral success back in the summer of 2021 with the help of apps such as TikTok. A flurry of phones lit up the venue as soon as the iconic bassline rang from the speakers, with the entire audience chanting along with the song’s tongue in cheek lyrics as Teasdale and Chambers danced around the stage.
Expectedly, the duo exceeded in translating their debut to a live format, however it was the unreleased tracks which left me most excited for what could be to come, especially the haunting and mellow ‘Obvious’, which saw the band take a direction not entirely explored on their studio release. Wet Leg are truly a band to keep on your radar, and deserve to be witnessed live, of course providing you can get tickets!
Photos and Words by Jacob Swetmore
