Wet Leg at NPR’s Tiny Desk: A Softer, Stranger Kind of Intimacy
Wet Leg’s debut at the Tiny Desk Concert builds even more anticipation for their upcoming album release. Watch their performance below.
Since the day Chaise Longue jolted the indie world awake, NPR had been angling to get Wet Leg behind the Tiny Desk. That 2021 single — dry-humored, oddly hypnotic, and carried by Rhian Teasdale’s disaffected delivery — was a calling card for a band that thrives on contradiction: sardonic but sincere, punchy yet oddly laid-back.
When the Isle of Wight duo finally stepped into NPR’s intimate setup, they didn’t come to rehash the hits or make a splashy scene. Instead, they gave something riskier — restraint. Skipping both their breakout track Chaise Longue and the sharp-edged Catch These Fists from their upcoming album moisturizer, Wet Leg leaned into subtler textures and emotional clarity.
The performance opened with CPR, a song that walks the line between infatuation and unhinged devotion, both in lyrics and energy. There’s tension beneath its surface, but it’s presented with such calm control that it hits even harder. From there, the band debuted “mangetout,” a track that, while unreleased, felt fully formed — strange, spiraling, and self-aware.
Davina mccall brought a dose of levity, with a bright melody and Teasdale’s voice moving smoothly between breezy and bruised. There’s always something under the grin with Wet Leg — a hint of disquiet peeking through their sunny arrangements.
They closed with a dreamy ballad from moisturizer, played live for the first time. There was no fanfare, just a gentle build and a sense that Wet Leg, even in their softest moments, are still pulling off something quietly subversive.
Their Tiny Desk set didn’t chase nostalgia or crowd-pleasing — it doubled down on what makes them interesting: control, contrast, and the ability to surprise without trying too hard.