[ATTENDED: March 12, 2022] Wet Leg
Wet Leg became a huge sensation on the basis of one song.
“Chaise Longue” was suddenly everywhere. And it’s a weird, catchy, funny song with lots of talking a lot of repetition. It hit all of my buttons and I was immediately a fan.
But it was so strange that the band had just this one song out–nothing else online or anywhere. NPR Music introduced me to the song in July 2021. They had a second single “Wet Dream” out in September. And that was that–two songs and an album promised in 2022.
And they announced a tour of the States in November. Somehow I missed the announcement because I would have totally gotten tickets at PhilMOCA. And it sold out pretty quickly. Then at some point it was announced that it was moved to Underground Arts and more tickets were available. I grabbed one immediately and it soon sold out at UA as well.
I thought the show would be fun, but I also thought that the band was a kind of left-field, one hit wonder who it would be fun to see because they’d probably never come back. Heck, they seemed like they might just make the one album and be done.
So my expectations weren’t super high, but I assumed I’d have a good time.
I was already bummed by where I had to stand–I couldn’t see very well at all–and in fact only saw the bassist about three times for the whole show. The three guys came out and settled in. And then Rhian Teasdale (brown hair) and Hester Chambers (blonde hair) stood at the front of the stage. They were dressed in white–Rhian in a kind of pantsuit set of some sort. And after nodding to each other, they began.
And they were great! They didn’t sound like the image they projected–two women from the Isle of Wight who wrote quirky songs, were suddenly thrust into the spotlight, and wouldn’t know how to deal. Indeed, no, they felt like a full band and they rocked hard. That was the biggest surprise for me–these songs really rocked.
Without saying a word, they played eight songs from their album (which even on bandcamp doesn’t have all of the songs playable yet). Most of us (All of us?) had never heard most of these songs yet. But those we did, we sang along to.
Rhian’s delivery was perfect–that speak/sing that is so prominent of “Chaise Longue” (something that some people hate but which I like) worked great with the roaring guitars and thumping drums. The rest of the band fit perfectly. They may have been introduced, but I didn’t catch any of their names.
I couldn’t see Hester all that well most of the time. She hung back, playing lead and occasionally stepped forward to sing backing vocals and the occasional lead.
I know that the third guitarist also played keyboards. And that Hester played keyboard while he played guitar on one track. I also know that the drummer played the intro to the incorrect song at one point and they all laughed about it–no tension on stage.
In fact Hester and Rhian were simply having the best time. At one point during an instrumental section, they stood back to back, then they slowly sank to the floor. They then pulled their knees up (all while playing, rolled on their sides, flipped over sat back to back and stood up while pressing against each other. An impressive feat for anyone playing guitar. They also had a few moments where they faced each other and jumped and spun in the air–hey, music is supposed to be fun!
After they played “Oh No,” Rhian put down her guitar.
She sang while the band played “Life is a Rollercoaster,” a song by Ronan Keating. That was the first time she spoke to us, giving a shout out to Boyzone.She thanked us all for coming and said other pleasantries and then picked up her guitar and they resumed the album.
Although I see that they didn’t play everything on the album. They skipped “I Don’t Wanna Go Out” and “Piece of Shit.” And, indeed, there were a few songs that aren’t on the album: “Red Eggs” and “Obvious,” while “It’s a Shame” and “It’s Not Fun” come from a bonus 7″ with the album).
They ended the set with “Angelica” their most recently released single and which everyone was familiar with.
The band didn’t leave for an encore. Rather, they paused briefly and Rhian said they had one more song, which we all knew was “Chaise Longue.” The song was a riotous amount of fun, with the crowd singing along to everything. Hester and Rhian were bouncing and dancing and at one point Rhian knocked her mic stand over and had to sing the end from Hester’s mic (which is considerably lower than her own).
They jammed the song out for a pretty long time and we loved it, chanting “on the chaise longue” over and over.
When the song was over, they thanked us, and 45 minutes after starting, their set and the show was over. It was pretty fantastic. And we all left feeling quite pleased.
I’m not sure if the band will do anything more after this. But they certainly felt like more than a joke band with one hit. It will be interesting to see if they comeback to Philly and can fit into a larger venue.
I thought of this as I left and made a beeline over to Union Transfer for the second half of my double header.
SETLIST
- Being in Love £
- Convincing £
- Wet Dream £
- Supermarket £
- Red Eggs
- Too Late Now £
- Obvious
- Oh No £
- Life is a Rollercoaster (Ronan Keating cover)
- Loving You £
- Ur Mum £
- It’s A Shame £7
- It’s Not Fun £7
- Angelica £
- Chaise Longue £
£ Wet Leg (2022)
£7 Wet Leg Bonus 7″ (2022)
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