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Clearly, no one in Wet Leg suffers from a medical condition that could be exacerbated by strobe lights. It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that more than half of the band’s set on Saturday, Sept. 6—the second of two-sold out nights at Revolution Hall—was accompanied by blindingly bright flashes of light.
Night two of the doubleheader saw the Isle of Wight five-piece’s melodic indie rock—boasting flavors of Elastica, Arctic Monkeys and the Spinanes—cloaked in nearly as much fog as strobe. For long stretches, guitarist Hester Chambers and drummer Henry Holmes were nearly invisible through the murk. Singer-guitarist Rhian Teasdale made up the difference, flexing her gym-rat physique at center stage and providing a focal point for the fully converted all-ages crowd, such as when she led the room in a deafening scream-athon during “Ur Mom.” Guitarist-keyboardist Josh Mobaraki provided a suitable foil, exhorting the crowd to “keep it going” like a comedy club emcee, and bassist Ellis Durand recovered from an equipment malfunction to make “Too Late Now” an early highlight of their 75-minute set.
It was a thrill to see an act that headlines arenas across the pond shoehorned into a former high school auditorium, and there was the palpable sense this would be the last time we’d see them in a venue that intimate. But the strobes and fog also kept the crowd at arm’s length from a group whose 2022 runaway-hit debut was characterized by quirky, personable charm. It tracks, however, with Wet Leg’s evolution into a more confident and integrated band on this year’s moisturizer, an album whose sheer consistency sometimes flattens out its significant achievements. Thankfully, that was not the case on Saturday, when new tracks like “mangetout” and “u and me at home” were every bit the crowd-pleasers as “Chaise Longue.” Wet Leg proved their breakthrough was no fluke, making it inevitable the band will realize their songs don’t all need shock-and-awe stage effects.