There are a bunch of reasons why it’s fun to watch scrappy young art rock bands blow up and find a wild amount of success, but my personal favorite is when they realize their dream is coming true in real time. And that was the experience watching Wet Leg perform at Headliners Music Hall on Sunday night. Joy radiated from the stage, and put a positive punctuation on the songs from the Grammy-nominated band’s debut record. The concert had been sold out for many months, and, as everyone I talked to at Headliners said, “We’ll never see them in a venue this size again” — which was definitely part of the charm of the show — but they absolutely delivered on the promise of it being a special experience. As all of us audience members packed into a pre-COVID, I-can’t-move-without-elbowing-someone crowd, Wet Leg established themselves as a new band putting on a veteran performance. They’re touring as a five-piece, which allows them to replicate the rich aspects of the record, and the sound and energy they brought on Sunday night was mesmerizing. They were dialed in.
The next time we see them in Kentucky, they’ll probably be on the second or third line of a festival lineup.
And if you have a chance to see the pop duo Faux Real, who opened the show, do it: they put on one of the most vibrant shows you’ll ever see. —Scott Recker
