Staging a grand London comeback after spending most of the last two years in lockdown limbo, IDLES delivered a thrillingly kinetic, high-voltage show at the first of four consecutive nights at Brixton Academy. “We have been practising,” insisted the Bristol band’s livewire singer Joe Talbot, “we’re just not very good.” This was a very IDLES joke: first, disarm the crowd with self-effacing wit, then blow the roof off the venue.
The smart choice of support act for this show was Wet Leg, the Isle of Wight quintet who formed after seeing Idles live, and who broke through last year as Britain’s buzziest new band. Their gloriously named frontwomen Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale, who on paper sound more like tweedy spinster detectives in an Agatha Christie novel than pop stars, whooped and yelped and demurely rocked out to archly self-aware songs like Wet Dream and Supermarket.
