Wet Leg
Chalk, Brighton
★★★★

ISLE OF WIGHT indie-rock sensations Wet Leg catapulted to fame in 2022 with the release of their eponymous debut album and viral hit single Chaise Longue, crowning the duo of vocalist Rhian Teasdale and guitarist Hester Chambers as the queens of sass.

Now returning as a fully fledged band, they’re joined by rhythm guitarist Josh Mobaraki, bassist Ellis Durand and drummer Henry Holmes on new album Moisturizer – a sharper, punkier and more confident effort that deservedly went straight to the top of the UK album charts.

The group are in sunny Brighton as part of a short album launch tour, which proved so popular in the city that they had to lay on an extra earlier set at the same venue, not that it helped to make it any less packed.

It’s sun’s out, guns out for Rhian, redeployed as the athletic-aesthetic face of the band, flexing her biceps before the group open with Catch These Fists – her response to unwanted male attention, punctuated by the chorus’s retributive “man down” and “I don’t want your love, I just wanna fight.”

Moisturizer is full of f**k off lyricism (Mangetout), catchy ditties (Liquidize) and tongue-in-cheek cultural nods (Davina McCall), all rendered live to perfection with glorious attitude and fine-tuned instrumentation.

Time is of the essence, though, in this tight 45-minute showcase. They rattle through tunes from both albums at the expense of too much audience interaction – Chaise Longue, Angelica and Being In Love from debut all getting a look-in – before finishing with the delicious, Elastica-style bass-licker CPR.

But from here on in, it’ll be increasingly rare to see Wet Leg in such an intimate setting, so this is a treat. They’re playing the Royal Albert Hall come autumn, and stardom beckons.

Wet Leg are currently on tour. For more information visit wetlegband.com