I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 15, 2025] Wet Leg

I saw Wet Leg three and a half years ago when they were something of a novelty buzz band because of their song Chaise Lounge.  I saw them at Underground Arts (capacity 650).  It was packed and I could barely see them, but it was still a fun show.

After the show, I thought “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.”

Now, three years later, the band has released their second album, have an entirely new look and have a bunch of songs that are bona fide–not novelty–hits.  So it’s no surprise that they are playing a bigger venue (FMH is 2500 people).

FMH is one of my least favorite venues to go to.  It’s always overcrowded and full of really tall people.  Most shows annoy me and I should probably stop going there all together, but it is the last small venue before bands move on to much bigger stages, so there are certain bands that can only fit in a venue that size.  I dislike the parking (it’s even worse now that all of the nearby lots have been attached to parking meters (and Jesus, there were NO spots on the street–on a Monday night??)  So we drove around a bit and arrived a little later than I wanted to, so we were just behind the ring of tall people who always seem to build a wall around the short people up front.

Amazingly, though, the tall people who were close to us (and threatening to block our view entirely) suddenly dispersed because the two tiny girls in front of us were bouncers.  Yep, every song they bounced–surprisingly high.  The girl in front of us had A LOT of hair and was often putting up her arm or arms or videoing (while bouncing, I’m sure it looked great),

So, they were very annoying and I was in a bad mood when the show first started so I feel like I didn’t fully enjoy Catch These Fists.  And yet, the song is great and I quickly got over my annoyance and enjoyed the new look and tone of the band.  Although amusingly, this first song was totally backlit so you couldn’t really see anything except silhouettes.

So it was a little surprising that they jumped back to their debut for three songs in a row.  But it was a good choice as the crowd knew and welcomed Wet Dream with rousing cheers.

Rhian playing a clear (yellow) guitar which was cool to see  through as the lights changed behind her.

And what lights there were.  Between the strobes and the fog guitarist Hester Chambers and drummer Henry Holmes were almost invisible.  I understand that Hester has stage fright (or something like it) so it’s not a surprise that she was tucked away.  She did come out of the fog a few times to play a truly wicked guitar solo–her skills are really impressive.  And much consideration for the backing vocals which really add so much to these songs.

Rhian of course does not suffer from stage fright and now that she’s all muscle, she was flexing and showing off her body.  The best news is that it didn’t impact her voice at all.  She sounded great–and she interacted with the audience quite a lot.

After Supermarket (which was a little brighter and less foggy), and the big I, I, I, I at the end, they jumped back to the new album for liquidize and jennifer’s body.  Putting Being in Love after these songs showed that their aesthetic hasn’t changed all that much from album one to two–a bit more whimsical on the debut, but the sound–occasional screaming guitars–has stayed with them.

Of course the fun of those songs couldn’t hold a candle to the fun of Ur Mum.  Guitarist-keyboardist Josh Mobaraki promised the loudest ever scream  So, in addition to everyone enjoying the chorus, the crowd (and strobe lights) went nuts for the longest and loudest scream.  He also encouraged us to keep the scream going long after the song was over.

The bouncy and fun Davina McCall received a huge response even if (I’m guessing) most people at the show don’t know who she is.  And even though Wet Leg is mostly about fun and naughtiness, the moody and quite lovely 11:21 sounded great in this big room.  But that naughtiness returns in full force on the blistering Pillow Talk with a great bass intro from Ellis Durand.

U and me at home was stopped midway through after a fan emergency.  I do go to a lot of shows, but I am surprised by how many problems/injuries I see at shows.  But they were able to pick right up and get the vibe back.

At Underground Arts last time the show was very different (so different!) but one of the nice things was seeing Rhian and Hester dance and jump with each other at the beginning of Too Late Now–it reminded me of the way they played off of each other in that tiny club.

The end of the set–the last four songs were crowd pleasing bangers.  Starting with Rhian and Hester playing the opening to Angelica.  Up next was Chaise Lounge–kind of surprising in a way that their viral hit wasn’t the last song, but it speaks to how great their other songs are that this one can fit seamlessly into the set.  They followed it with a great version of Mangetout which the crowd was totally into.  Rhian sat in front of a giant fan to sing the slow part–her hair blowing around–which was fun to see.  They ended the set with CPR which was the big hit at the time–I think now that Mangetout would be the final song. Rhian even had a phone brought out to dial 999.

The show was fairly short (a little over an hour), but they really did cover everything.  In total they played 10 songs from Moisturizer (skipping Pokemon) and 8 songs from their debut (skipping I Don’t Wanna Go Home; Convincing; Loving You and Piece of Shit).  Could they have played those last five songs and still been done in 90 minutes?  Sure.  But sometimes a short, punchy show is just what is called for.

If there was one gripe, I wish it wasn’t quite so dark (and the people in front of us didn’t suck so much).  But overall, this was a great show and a lot of fun.  And since we were seeing Garbage in the same venue the following night, it was like a great warmup.

Oh, and Tito Santana posted the whole show

 

2025 (franklin music hall)	2022 (underground arts)
catch these fists Ô	Being in Love ∠
Wet Dream ∠	Convincing ∠
Oh No ∠	Wet Dream ∠
Supermarket ∠	Supermarket ∠
liquidize Ô	Red Eggs
jennifer’s body Ô	Too Late Now∠
Being in Love ∠	Obvious
pond song Ô	Oh No∠
Ur Mum ∠	Life is a Rollercoaster (Ronan Keating cover)
don’t speak Ô	Loving You ∠
davina mccall Ô	Ur Mum ∠
11:21 Ô	It’s A Shame £7
pillow talk Ô	It’s Not Fun £7
u and me at home Ô (restarted after fan injury)	Angelica ∠
Too Late Now ∠	Chaise Longue ∠
Angelica ∠
Chaise Lounge ∠
mangetout Ô
CPR Ô

 

Ô Moisturizer (2025)
∠ Wet Leg (2022)
£7 Wet Leg Bonus 7″ (2022)