For my first Moshville Times gig review, I picked a band that isn’t usually in my wheelhouse – Wet Leg’s second night of a sold-out two-night run at Glasgow’s O2 Academy.
Supporting act Faux Real start things off with a bang. The American-French duo energetically worked their way through 40 minutes of art-pop and techno-driven bangers, while clad in matching white outfits and performing choreographed dances that felt like 90s boyband routines. At first I thought this was going to be really cringey, but they were actually a lot of fun – especially at the end of their set, when the brothers came into the crowd (they did ask us to “open up the pit”, which made me and photographer Alan Swan, both metalheads, laugh out loud) and performed their final song while bouncing around with LED lights. It sounds ridiculous, but it was really quite wholesome, and Alan and I both commented that they’d be amazing at a festival or at a late-night club.
Next up are headliners Wet Leg. Entering in a cloud of smoke, the band take their spots on the stage one by one, ending with vocalist and guitarist Rhian Teasdale who immediately dives into opener “Being in Love”.
Shrouded in fog and spotlighted by strobes, the atmosphere is intense, and Teasdale certainly commands the audience. However, I couldn’t really see anything due to the smoke for at least the first three songs, which was quite disappointing. Once it cleared and I could get a proper sense for the band’s stage presence though, I was impressed by Teasdale – she exuded a quiet, shy and coquettish confidence, and throughout the whole set seemed like she was incredibly happy to be there. Wet Leg’s songs are replete with relatable lyrics about love, infatuation, and sex, and Teasdale sings each line of their songs in a way that feels like she’s flirting with us. It was quite hypnotizing at times.
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However, the audience was something else. Forgive me while I turn this review into a rant for a brief moment. I don’t go to many non-metal gigs, so the crowd was a bit of a culture shock for me – the varying ages, from tweens to people in their 60s, was fine, but the way a lot of them behaved was so far from the polite “gig etiquette” I’m used to. At one point, a lassie trying to make her way from the front of the crowd to the bar at the back stopped to thank me for actually moving out of her way, because everyone else was giving her dirty looks. In my experience, this doesn’t happen at metal gigs – we all tend to be respectful of each other’s space and are there as a unit to experience the music together.
But at Wet Leg there were so many drunk assholes with no sense of rhythm or personal space surrounding me that I had to move towards the very back, which was a difficult feat (solidarity to the Glasgow Lassie). It felt more like a club or a party than a gig, and it was a vibe I couldn’t get used to.
Okay, rant over.
Wet Leg were good. While they aren’t the kind of band I usually listen to, they take me right back to the early 2000s, with an indie-sleaze sound that reminds me of The Strokes, The White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sleater-Kinney, and Elastica. So while they might be a “new” or “modern” band since they have only released two records, to me they feel quite nostalgic. It wasn’t a groundbreaking performance, and I won’t be rushing to attend any other indie-type bands live for the foreseeable, but it made a nice change, and I love to see women-fronted bands kick ass.
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Photos by Alan Swan Photography
