Review: Wet Leg at the 02 Ritz Manchester

There’s victory laps, and then there’s the UK tour that Wet Leg are presently on.

Just this week, the Isle of Wight pair have been nominated for five Grammy Awards and, last night, a pre-recorded performance on The Jonathan Ross Show went out in front of a TV audience of millions.

It caps a year that’s seen them follow up the promise of last June’s viral hit ‘Chaise Longue’ with a number one debut album, a triumphant festival season and a Mercury Prize nomination. Not bad for a band who, in their own words, started out as “a bit of a joke.”

To be fair, the duo’s sense of humour has proved a major part of their appeal; what sets Wet Leg apart is their marriage of singer Rhian Teasdale’s arch, playful lyricism with the kind of angular guitar melodies that for a while had seemed consigned to indie rock history.

It makes for breezy, infectiously fun pop-punk, and the sense that nothing is quite as good a laugh as playing in Wet Leg is something that bleeds through on stage, even after such a relentless year of touring; expanded to a five-piece live, they arrive to packed Ritz to the strains of an instrumental from The Lord of the Rings’ soundtrack and, within the opening ten minutes, have already set the pace with the giddy, witty hit single ‘Wet Dream’.

Fresh from a summer of music festivals, Wet Leg took to the stage at 02 Ritz Manchester (Hollie Fernando)

That track acts as Wet Leg in microcosm, sharply encapsulating what makes them tick; chantable riffery, driving rhythm and, from assured frontwoman Teasdale, tongue-in-cheek lyrics delivered with a knowing coquettishness. It’s songs in this vein that act as the engine for this quick-fire 50-minute set, with the irresistibly silly stomp of ‘Oh No’ and the deliciously scathing ‘Ur Mum’ both inspiring full-blown singalongs.

The deeper cuts from the debut record, though, fall a little flat; with the past summer’s festivals proving beyond doubt the ability of Wet Leg’s singles to whip up a feverish atmosphere, there’s still a touch of mystery to what lies beneath that surface.

Wet Leg performing on the Park Stage during the Glastonbury Festival (PA)

The haunting ‘Obvious’, which didn’t make the album, suggests genuine vulnerability behind the Teasdale’s perma-grin, whilst the quietly stormy ‘Too Late Now’ is an exercise in millennial angst that offers a disarmingly glass-half-empty look at modern Britain. Those tracks don’t quite capture this particular crowd’s imagination though, perhaps understandably; on a Saturday night, ‘Angelica’s droll refrain of “good times, all the time” is maybe preferable to ‘Too Late Now’s “life’s supposed to be this shit.”

There’s a deeper, apparently darker side of Wet Leg to be explored in the fullness of time, and their runaway success will afford them the opportunity to go again on album number two, maybe after they’ve wrapped up next summer’s massive stadium tour with Harry Styles. Until then, though, they’re happy to play the part of endearingly impish pop pranksters, as a blistering closing take on ‘Chaise Longue’ reminds us.

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