photo by Khoi Ton

The last time we reviewed Wet Leg live, the occasion was a show at a Columbus venue that held just 400 people. So seeing the Mohegan Sun Arena’s 10,000-seat capacity after making my way through the garish casino in which it resides was quite the contrast and a measure of just how far the Welsh band has come in the intervening four years. When they played Columbus, their debut album was yet to be released, and the band was mostly just known for surprise hit “Chaise Lounge.” As evidenced by the increase in venue size, they’ve since achieved greater commercial success with sophomore record, Moisturizer, a powerhouse of an album that retained all the charm of its predecessor while amping up their mix of pop hooks and post-punk grooves.

The evolution of the band became even more clear once they took the stage, with singer Rhian Teasdale taking a commanding position out front and wearing a skin-tight outfit much different from the long skirt and apron she wore at that Columbus show. She quickly proved that the role suits her as she went from cooing lines about being hit on during opener “Catch These Fists” to posing to show off her muscles. She still strapped on a guitar for a good portion of the performance, but when she was free from its constraints, she prowled the stage with a barely contained ferocity, even dropping to all fours when moved to do so. As such, she was clearly the focal point of the show, with her bandmates often shrouded in copious amounts of dry ice fog.

Teasdale and the band ended up playing nearly all of Moisturizer over the course of their 75-minute set while throwing in a handful of cuts of from their self-titled debut, including of course, “Chaise Lounge,” which may have been the crowd favorite, though their final song of the night, “Mangetout,” was a close second. However, there was no noticeable drop off when shifting from one record to the other, and their catalog proved to be arena-ready, especially “Ur Mom,” during which Rhian had the crowd join in for the song’s scream two-thirds of the way through. They shifted easily between the sultry groove of “Pokemon” to the big riffs of “Pond Song,” and the show had everything you could want from an arena performance without feeling overdone (except maybe the dry ice). Wet Leg still sounds very much like the band at that little club, only bigger and better. Here’s hoping that doesn’t change.