Having released their second album, moisturiser, Wet Leg have found a new image and buckets of new energy. We dropped in on their gig at The Level to discover a band who are at their most confident, and having more fun than ever...
My first Wet Leg gig was a bit of a disaster. Not because of the band – they were excellent – but everything else. It was 33 degrees at a huge festival in 2022 and I was barely able to move, pressed on all sides by an immense crowd who were all eager to simply be there to experience the biggest new guitar act in half a decade. It was too sticky, too draining and too bloomin’ hot to be able to really enjoy the frenetic, playful sleaze of their debut album. Needless to say, I left that field with a sense of unfinished business.
It was with no little anticipation, then, that I approached Wet Leg’s intimate-ish Rough Trade outstore gig at The Level. Fresh off the release of their second LP, moisturizer, conquering every festival they play and toppling Oasis from the top of the charts, tonight finds the band in the midst of another whirlwind of success. Lesser bands might let it get to them, or show signs of being overwhelmed by such heady heights. Wet Leg aren’t that band; they are having far too much of a good time for that.
They appear to a rapturous reception, jumping straight into a frenzied 1-2 punch of catch these fists and the immense Wet Dream, the latter one of the initial hits from their eponymous debut. It could be said that this mode of uptempo silliness is what the band are best known for; where they’re most comfortable. Seeing the ease with which they whip the crowd up into a furore, you’d be hard pressed to disagree. It’s a formidable opening.
The most visible catalyst for this blast of energy is Rhian Teasdale. A born frontwoman overflowing with charisma, she appears onstage with dripping wet hair and, apparently, a point to prove; her first pose of the evening sees her stood with arms raised, biceps bulging. It’s a far cry from the pastoral aesthetic of their first album, and it suits her.
Dressed in white and occasionally rocking one of the coolest guitars I’ve seen – a lime green perspex belter – she is the picture of insouciant cool in one moment and exudes lasciviousness the next. It’s a performance that demonstrates just how confident she and the whole band have become, now they’re a few years into their journey.
The most impactful feeling you get watching the band live though, is just how much they enjoy playing together. There are constant smiles between all five of the members as they make their way through their songs together; celebrating unexpected little harmonies or newfound textures in the interplay between instruments. It’s genuinely contagious.
One of Wet Leg’s biggest strengths is their ability to incorporate just the right amount of quirkiness into their songs, while still retaining the irresistible melodic coherence and accessibility that delivers impassioned sing-alongs from devoted fans. Their new album maintains this rather excellent tradition, exemplified in the summery breeziness of davina mccall and the boisterous savagery of mangetout.
But like all great bands, they have more than one string to their bow. While it is a relatively high energy set throughout, the sweetness at the core of the new record’s outlook shines through in the call and response of u and me at home. Teasdale has commented about how the new album focuses on love – she’s found herself in a happy relationship since the first album – and these new songs see her exploring the subject in a very pure, yet still undeniably off-kilter way.
If tonight is anything to go by, this swerve toward celebrating the simpler pleasures of going home and sitting on the couch is being lapped up by fans; tonight they are in full voice and increasingly uninhibited, so that by the end of the gig the single that started it all, Chaise Longue, is met with a deafening response. It’s a proper moment. The fact that new song CPR is able to match that high bar shows just how adept Wet Leg are at crafting songs capable of seeping into the musical consciousness; becoming instant classics and undeniable earworms.
So as I leave The Level, the infectious dun dun dun dun of CPR’s guitars still echoing, it’s with a grin that I realise I still have unfinished business. However this time it’s for entirely the right reason. Wet Leg return to Notts in November, playing Rock City. It’s going to be a good ‘un (dun dun dun).
Wet Leg performed at The Level on 11th August 2025.
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