Wet Leg Takes the Piss Out of Rock at The Basement East

“We’re a long way from the Shire,” Rhian Teasdale said, in her best imitation of Sean Astin’s Samwise Gamgee, as she scanned the full-capacity crowd at The Basement East. Monday night’s show marked the midpoint of the first U.S. tour for Wet Leg, the poppy, funky, post-punky rock band Teasdale and pal Hester Chambers started on the Isle of Wight in 2019.

In addition to a slate of showcases at SXSW, most dates on the band's March run are sold out. That’s not bad for a group whose first record — a self-titled LP via Domino — won’t be out until April 8, when they’ll be back home in the U.K. The anticipation for the tour is built around a handful of singles, starting with last year’s Mean Girls-quoting viral hit “Chaise Longue.” Based on Wet Leg's visit to Nashville, there’s a good chance they’ll convert anyone who was merely curious into a fan.

Opening act Lowertown didn’t have to travel nearly as far as Wet Leg did physically, but they’re also on their first tour outside their home base of Atlanta. Core members Olivia Osby and Avshalom Weinberg, who’ve been making music together for several years, had their last semester of high school upended by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They released their most recent EP The Gaping Mouth in the fall, marked by a blend of indie-rock sounds whose looseness has little glimmers of Pavement in it and whose lyrical themes revolve around the uncomfortable tradeoffs that are part of becoming an adult. As a society, we’re still struggling to find some kind of normal that’s hopefully better than the one we had pre-pandemic. That helped Lowertown's songs resonate with me in a different way than I expected, having slipped into my (gulp) late 30s.

The Basement East ran like clockwork on Monday. Lowertown started right at 8 p.m., and Wet Leg’s crew was doing line checks shortly after 9. A flashlight was waved from backstage, a few bars of the “Concerning Hobbits” theme from The Lord of the Rings played over the P.A., and Wet Leg appeared to excited applause. Teasdale and Chambers, who both sang and played guitars, were joined by Joshua Mobaraki on guitar and synth, Ellis Durand on bass and Henry Holmes on drums. Though the group is technically a duo, the full quintet appears on the aforementioned Wet Leg, and they play like a band that’s been on the road together for years. 

You can pick out lots of threads of influence in the sound they’ve concocted: the snarl of X-Ray Spex, the thrumming churn of Joy Division, the nervy New Wave energy of Suburban Lawns, the psychedelic groove modulation of, say, Stereolab. While Chambers focuses on guitar melodies and backup vocals, Teasdale takes the lead vocal on most of the songs. Sometimes she sings, but other times she employs a talk-singing delivery that reminds me of Tina Weymouth in Tom Tom Club, as they both convey a lot of context by manipulating the rhythm. Still, Wet Leg has put considerable effort into weaving whatever influences they’ve picked up into their own wild tapestry (which also includes a cover of Ronan Keating's 2000 dance-pop single "Life Is a Rollercoaster").

In their lyrics, they pick apart awkward social situations and push back against people who try to make them feel small — either in real life or on the internet. “Oh No,” a song about the toxicity of the comments section and how it manifests in other in-person interactions, was one of the emotional peaks in Monday's show. During a sort of jammy section in the middle, Chambers and Teasdale struggled to keep a straight face as they put on a choreographed routine that was a bit like the “Stonehenge” sequence from This Is Spinal Tap.

The band members take what they do very seriously, but they aren’t self-serious. They poke at the formulaic notion of what “a rock band” ought to be, all while being a great fucking rock band. And that’s exactly the kind of subversion rock ’n’ roll needs to survive and thrive.