Tattoo you: Wet Leg leaves its mark on fans with a radiant afternoon set at ACL Fest
Attention local tattoo parlors: You may soon be getting a visit from an Austin City Limits Music Festival attendee who collected a custom design on Friday at Zilker Park through a most improbable method.
"Draw me a tattoo," a fan's homemade sign requested near the front of the stage. Wet Leg's Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers saw it and thought that was a good idea. A festival security guard brought the sign to them, and as the two women traded accompanying jazz-guitar background riffs, each drew a small portrait of the other on the cardboard sign. It was then handed back to the fan, who sported a huge smile that lit up the Jumbotron.
That's the kind of feel-good afternoon Wet Leg provided for a larger-than-usual-for-early-afternoon crowd at the Honda stage. The crowd size wasn't all that surprising: The British indie-rockers, whose self-titled debut album topped the UK charts earlier this year, were one of the biggest buzz bands at Austin's South by Southwest in March.
Wet Leg's sound is not new — they strike a classic indie-rock groove informed by forbears such as the Pixies and the Breeders — but they do it really well, with strong songs centered on Teasdale and Chambers' compelling lead vocals. Backed by a three-piece band on guitar/keyboards, bass and drums, they delivered a 40-minute set drawn mostly from their album, with highlights including the bouncy sugar-pop of "Supermarket," the sultry "Wet Dream" and the set-closing rocker "Chaise Longue."
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Hailing from the Isle of Wight, the band seemed surprised to find that we still get temperature in the 90s in Texas in October. "This is really bizarre, it's so sunny here," Teasdale remarked a couple of songs into the band's set. Try coming in August if you want a full-on immersion, Wet Leggers. But their cool music helped a throng of festgoers not mind the heat so much as ACL Fest's second weekend cranked into full gear.
And if they needed a break from the heat after their set, Teasdale might have followed through on a lyric from their mid-set song "Too Late Now": "I just need a bubble bath/ To set me on a higher path."
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Wet Leg makes a lasting impression at ACL Fest 2022 Weekend 2
