{"id":564968,"date":"2026-07-02T10:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/564968\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T10:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:23:11","slug":"wet-leg-at-tcd-review-exuberant-witty-and-captivating-this-band-are-only-getting-started-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/564968\/","title":{"rendered":"Wet Leg at TCD review: Exuberant, witty and captivating \u2013 this band are only getting started \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wet LegTrinity College Dublin\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606<\/p>\n

Wet Leg<\/a>\u2019s self-titled debut album, in 2022, made them one of the UK\u2019s biggest breakout acts, and for good reason. It was infectiously fun, old-fashioned indie rock, driven by irreverent, deadpan lyrics and a sense of play. <\/p>\n

Rather than chasing a more mainstream sound, their second album, Moisturizer, moved into different, and ultimately more interesting, territory. The songs are heavier and more sincere, and the songwriting reaches beyond the jokes for emotional depth; these are proper love songs, full of longing, obsession and exhilaration.<\/p>\n

On a foggy, wet evening at Trinity College Dublin<\/a>, smoke billowing across the stage, Wet Leg open to the theme from Countdown. \u201cVery British, but okay,\u201d someone in the crowd says ambivalently. <\/p>\n

Luckily, the set quickly kicks into gear with the exuberant Catch These Fists, a swaggering opener whose driving riffs and sly lyrics \u2013 \u201cWe\u2019re on our way to the club \/ Stupid is, stupid does \/ Limousine, racking up \/ Ketamine, giddy up\u201d \u2013 immediately lift the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The songs from their debut sit effortlessly alongside the more intimate new material, allowing Rhian Teasdale<\/a> to show her impressive range as a frontwoman. One moment she\u2019s thrashing across the stage; the next she\u2019s crouched low, delivering quieter songs with surprising tenderness. <\/p>\n

The transition from the bratty exuberance of Being in Love into the surreal romance of Pond Song neatly captures the band\u2019s evolution. \u201cWhen I dipped my dogs into the pond \/ Of your mind, I finally found God,\u201d Teasdale sings, drawing genuine emotion from a line that is, on paper, kind of nonsensical.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a captivating performer, with an uncanny ability to look as though she\u2019s dancing around her bedroom in her panties, albeit with Timberlands, dramatic hair extensions and tiny office-siren glasses. She throws herself into the heavier moments with gleeful, unselfconscious abandon but can seamlessly switch into tender mode.<\/p>\n

Despite now playing to crowds that dwarf the venues they cut their teeth in, Wet Leg still carry themselves with a refreshing lack of self-importance. During one of Teasdale\u2019s few moments of between-song banter, she scans the packed audience almost incredulously. \u201cThere are so many of you,\u201d she says coyly. \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time the sprawling CPR gives way to the closing Mangetout, the crowd is singing every word back: \u201cYou think I\u2019m pretty, you think I\u2019m pretty cool \/ You wanna fuck me, I know most people do.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wet Leg haven\u2019t lost the wit that made their debut so enjoyable, but they\u2019re no longer relying on it as heavily. Judging by a set like this, they\u2019re only just getting started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wet LegTrinity College Dublin\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 Wet Leg\u2019s self-titled debut album, in 2022, made them one of the UK\u2019s biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,137503,19,17,137504,63,124549],"class_list":["post-564968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-hester-chambers","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rhian-teasdale","tag-trinity-college-dublin-tcd","tag-wet-leg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}