Wet Leg, Castlefield Bowl. 8th July 2026

I’m thankful to be outside, in the shade, with the beautiful Manchester sun slowly setting, but it’s still damn hot at Castlefield Bowl tonight as Wet Leg take to the stage. The weather certainly helps the vibe, they’re a summer band aren’t they. Some bands require darkness, but Wet Leg make perfect sense in what’s essentially a festival atmosphere. There’s an air of comfortable middle England up on the banked hill at the back of this amphitheatre. People have fans and are dressed up. Add some strawberry’s and we could be at Wimbledon. Wet Leg though, despite their accessible indie cool, have developed some genuine punk rock bite and start ridiculously strong with ‘Catch These Fists’. It’s an explosion of smoke, snarl and stobes. Rhian flexes her biceps defiantly as the entire place locks in. It’s pretty damn impressive. The floor space is bouncing for ‘Oh No’ and ‘Wet Dream’. Those super clean riffs rip through the speaker stacks. The latter is sung as much by the crowd as the band, all with perfectly timed mass synchronised hand claps. It’s an assault of beautifully simple pop hooks that are impossible not to adore. ‘Supermarket’ finishes off the opening, lolling along wonderfully as everyone gets to take a little breather. They sound brilliant, the perfect balance of recreating the record, but with plenty of improv to make the live set buzz, but the buzz fizzles out for ‘Liquidize’ and ‘Jennifer’s Body’ as the second album songs struggle to catch the masses. They’re a little less immediate, a bit It more 90s Sleeper, but I like Sleeper. My thoughts are confirmed by the cheers of applause as ‘Being in Love’ begins, not ends, begins. Like a wave of relief has swept over many who recognise the song. It’s got a lot heavier since I first heard it live and really is brilliant. They look like they’re having fun too, which always helps, all dressed in white, aside Hester in a blood red dress. ‘Pond Song’ too fairs better, starting slowly and building to a raucous stomp. Their rise has been rapid. Rhian clocks the crowd and wonders if it’s one of the biggest, if not the biggest for their own show. Sure they’ve played to more people at festivals, but thousands of people are here, for them and songs like ‘UR Mum’, complete with its own primal scream therapy interlude, which the floor joins in with, the hill does not. Then it’s back to the Moisturizer songs, ‘Pokemon’, ‘Davina McCall’ and ‘11:21’. All of which are great, but again lose the crowd a little, getting distracted by waving at passing trains (a Castlefield Bowl custom). The hazy dusk is setting in though, Rhian is strutting around, Josh stamps his feet getting fired up and Hester throws shapes with her guitar. Annoyingly at this point, where I’m stood turns into a corridor as a ton of people decide they’re, bored, need a wee, are thirsty, or judging by the amount of them all three! ‘11:21’ is probably the slowest song in the set, with Rhian sitting at the front of the stage creating an impressively intimate moment, I’m not sure why people have such short attention spans, but this song in particular seems to trigger the most movement. ‘Pillow Talk’ is album two too, but it’s very different as they hit the Pixies pedal and go full throttle. It doesn’t have the catchy hooks or earworm melodies, but fuck me it’s got some punch. ‘U and Me at Home’ finishes off this mid-set section and oddly reminds me of a watered down Manics, something about the chorus I think. Anyway, it’s once again the songs from the debut record that work best. ‘Too Late Now’ brings the crowd back onside. Even if they seem to want to film rather than dance. ‘Angelica’ fixes that as the last of the natural light fades and the stage becomes more focused. There was a strobe warning coming in and this is why. They work overtime as the smoke pouring off the stage lights up like a localised lightning cloud. They sound massive, it’s an undiluted display of the blissful power they’re capable of. We’re at the business end as ‘Chaise Longue’ is deployed to the expected sea of phones and singing. This is where it started, but it’s lost none of its bite and they lean into it lovingly. They don’t need it to close though. They’ve moved on and it’s the second album that sees out the night with ‘CPR’ and ‘Mangetout’ proving the follow up has hits too, theatrics, rawk riffs and arch lyrics that round out an entertaining set. Did they blow me away as much as they’ve done in the past, honestly no, but there’s something more about them now as they grow into these bigger spaces and tonight’s set leaves me excited for what might be to come with album three.