Wet Leg turns the Electric Ballroom into a Hot Sweaty Mess!
Wet Leg seem to have catapulted onto the music scene somewhat fully formed! Twelve months ago who, outside of the Isle of Wight and a bunch of industry insiders, had heard of them? But then of course ‘Chaise Lounge’ burst into everyone’s consciousness like the love child of the B52s and Miss Kittin. A truly viral event when the word “viral” has become so overused and cliched, so passé. Yet links to the quirky video passed furtively around on social media and propelled the nascent stars, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, into the limelight.
Much to the surprise of my seventeen-year old daughter even I had heard of them by the time I received the call to attend Camden’s iconic Electric Ballroom. On duty for All Music Magazine, my pre-gig research comprised me watching their numerous videos online a few times to try and find out what this band is about. How have they seemingly cracked the big time in one fell swoop? How have they managed to sell out the Electric Ballroom, after being upgraded from planned venue Scala? Can the hype really be accurate?
The Electric Ballroom was absolutely rammed, from the barrier to the bar on the back wall, a hot sweaty mess! Everyone, it seemed, had turned out to see what all the fuss is about, just two weeks after the release of Wet Leg’s eponymous number 1 album. After some chilled support from Honeyglaze they took to the stage and the crowd went crazy. The album might be only a few weeks old, but the crowd was singing along. They knew every word!
If all you knew about this band was their performances in their twisted and often-surreal online videos, you might have been forgiven for expecting some kind of lightweight almost-comedic act from some undeserving lucky upstarts. And you could not have been more wrong! Whilst Rhian and Hester looked not yet fully at home on a stage in front of a 1,500-strong very enthusiastic audience, they seemed refreshingly un-jaded and un-cynical. They looked genuinely amazed they were finally there doing their thing, and also a little shy. Not for them the verbal banter or audience engagement between songs, in fact they hardly said a word at all. Instead they got on with a thoroughly accomplished set, their duo sound ably rounded out onstage by the addition of their touring band, Ellis Durand, Henry Holmes and Joshua Omead Mobaraki. From the (brand new!) old favourites ‘Ur Mum’, ‘Wet Dream’ and of course the closing number ‘Chaise Longue’, through much of the album material and even some new material. All of which were rapturously received by the deliriously happy crowd. It will be interesting to see how they maintain this momentum; if you rise to prominence and your debut album goes to number one, all in twelve short months, how do you top that?! Wet Leg clearly have depth, ideas, imagination and far to go. One clearly gets the impression that this is only the very beginning for Wet Leg.
Wet Leg Are:
Rhian Teasdale – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Hester Chambers – lead guitar, backing vocals
Touring Band
Ellis Durand – bass, backing vocals
Henry Holmes – drums, percussion
Joshua Omead Mobaraki – additional guitars, synthesizer, backing vocals
SET LIST
1/ Being in Love
2/ Convincing
3/ Wet Dream
4/ Supermarket
5/ Piece of Shit
6/ Too Late Now
7/ Obvious
8/ Oh No I Don’t Wanna Go Out
9/ Ur Mum
10/ It’s a Shame
11/ It’s Not Fun
12/ I Want to Be Abducted (By a UFO)
13/ Angelica
14/ Chaise Longue
FOLLOW WET LEG ONLINE
Passionate live music photographer operating under the name Marvellous Gig Photography. Available for gigs, festivals and other events plus promo shoots for socials, flyers and merch.
Based in Southeast United Kingdom.
