Wet Leg are back. Back with new singles, a new album in July and a short headline tour in venues that aren’t the size of aircraft hangers supporting megastars. With Henry Holmes, Josh Mobaraki and Ellis Durand now fully signed up band members together with Rhian Teasdale and co-founder Hester Chambers Wet Leg deliver a perfect set of their quirky, uplifting, often amusing indie-pop songs to a sold out Leeds Academy that hangs on every note they play and every lyric sung. Emerging through a seemingly impenetrable wall of smoke and blitzed by some retina burning strobes Teasdale strides to the stage front, oozing bold confidence and stands flexing her biceps for a good number of seconds. The rest of the band take their positions, Chambers at the back next to the drum riser facing away from the audience (her social anxiety is well documented) and they launch into recent single Catch These Fists with it’s massive guitar riffs and irresistable dance beats. From the off the crowd are bouncing, they know the lyrics, “Man down” gleefully sung back to the band.
Teasdale takes centre stage, and most of the attention, as she bounces, crouches and writhes around her mic stand. ‘Liquidize’, another new song due for release on album number two – Moisturizer – gives a massive nod to the sounds of bands such as The Breeders and despite only being available at the moment by searching the internet it seems that most present tonight have done just that. Wet Leg toured breakthrough self titled album relentlessly for 4 years and for a time it seemed you couldn’t get away from it on the radio so it’s little wonder that this crowd knows it by heart. We get nine songs from it’s twelve and each is greeted with pure joy from this Yorkshire crowd. Whether it’s the wonderfully bouncy “Being In Love’ and ‘Wet Dream’ or the slower chants of ‘Supermarket’ people seem completely lost in each individual moment. Maybe they relate to to the put-downs, disaffection and tales of self-doubt. Maybe they’re just completely lost in the dreamy, hook laden, often hypnotic sounds from the stage and the attention grabbing performance of Teasdale. Whatever it is, as someone who likes to really listen to a band, it’s particularly pleasing not to be stood near people who pay good money to attend a gig just to have their own conversations. Be it at the side and even at the back near the bar people are completely immersed in dancing around and singing along – to themselves or to whoever they are with.
The collective, throat tearing scream in ‘Ur Mum’ is deafening. This is a band and a crowd having fun. It’s refreshing to be stood amongst two thousand people who actually know what’s happening and don’t just suddenly wake up/stop talking when the big hits are played. Of course ‘Chaise Longue’ is greeted with a roar of approval – “Excuse me Leeds?” met with a resounding “What!” and a collective pride from those who got that Big D.
Dropping seven new songs, six if you don’t include ‘Catch These Fists’ into a set of just sixteen would, for a lot of bands, be simply asking for trouble. Not so for Wet Leg. ‘Liquidize’, ‘Jennifers Body’ ‘Pillow Talk’ ‘Mangetout’ and ‘Davina McCall’ are lapped up by fans desperate to hear new material and appreciating what they’re going to get when it’s finally released. Wet Leg close not with another big hit but with ‘CPR’, released just a few days ago, a raw, visceral slice of rock. There’s no encore. There’s no need. In a little over 60 minutes Wet Leg have delivered their intended statement. We’re back, we’re great and we’re here to stay.
Big shout out to support Katy J Pearson, friend of Rhian Teasdale, and a well respected artist herself. KJP played a quality 30 minute set of enchanting, melancholic songs spanning all three of her albums. Thoughtful, captivating. Songs such as Beautiful Soul and Talk Over Town are quietly mesmorising, a point highlighted by the fact that those still wandering into the venue and finding their spots are quickly hooked in and remain quiet as we all listen to a voice that one moment is dreamy, the next soaring, enveloping everyone here. Fantastic performance well appreciated by the Wet leg fans who, by the time KJP has finished, have almost filled the Academy to capacity.
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