HARRY STYLES WET LEG
WHERE MARVEL STADIUM, NAARM/MELBOURNE, VICTORIA WHEN FRIDAY FEBRUARY 24TH, 2023
REVIEW ELLIE ROBINSON PHOTO OSEPH OKPAKO
The mood inside Marvel Stadium is one of pure, inescapable euphoria: Harry Styles’ fans are nothing if not devoted (sometimes concerningly so), and with this marking his first tour Down Under in five years, those fans are veritably bursting at the seams with excitement. Rarely do we see a face that’s not plastered with a big, animated smile – kids and adults alike – and there are quite a few of them here tonight; it takes us eight whole minutes to walk from the start of the line to the back (we timed it). To combat the lengthy queues, particularly devoted fans started lining up
yesterday. Psychopath behaviour.
With all this youthful excitement around Styles’ return, Wet Leg’s opening set isn’t given the attention or acclaim it deserves. But for those of us that put the hype train in neutral and tune in, it’s a banging showcase of youthful joviality and tongue-in-cheek quirkiness. Flanked by a backing band that not only fleshes out their songs but elevates them, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers – who split their duties on vocals and guitar – bounce off each other playfully, wholly embracing the buoyant and bristly energy of their eponymous debut album (which arrived last year, and is phenomenal). They’re lackadaisical, but in a kind of ironic way, evoking the spirit of Oasis and The Strokes, but with much sprightlier and more colourful songs.
Deafening cheers bound around the stadium and Styles and his band make their grand entrance. They waste no time getting right to the bangers, kicking off with Harry’s House single ‘Music For A Sushi Restaurant’. The song itself isn’t particularly great – it sounds like something you’d hear in a Kmart ad – but this performance, energised and impassioned, makes it feel like a classic. All but three songs from Styles’ 2022 album are in the spotlight tonight, with an early highlight being ‘Keep Driving’ – on record it’s cool and cruisy, but live it shimmers with an amplified groove and smoky edge.
This is one of the many things Styles’ band excel at: taking songs that have unique feels and flavour, and while retaining those, adding to them with tasteful boosts of colour and spirit. ‘Watermelon Sugar’ is another solid example – the band celebrate its sexy pop base but kick it up a notch with a flare of analogue energy. But if we’re honing in on the rock’n’roll punch they bring, we can’t look past the sole One Direction song that makes it into the set, the undeniably iconic ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, which Styles and co. turn into an absolutely explosive moment.
Styles himself doesn’t wield a guitar as often as we’d hoped he would, but when he does, it’s clear he’s earned his stripes in transitioning from boyband heartthrob to legitimate indie-rock idol. He strums away on a hollowbody (a Gibson ES-350T) for the sweet and summery ‘Daylight’, losing himself in the moment as its warm, buttery howls soar from the PA. But regardless of whether he’s armed with an axe, Styles is profoundly engaging, taking full advantage of his star power to go above and beyond in his performance. When he spots a sign in the crowd, he pauses to read it aloud and respond to it with a quip. He jokes with a teacher who took the day off to attend the show, leads the crowd in singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to a fan at the barrier, and helps another come out as queer to their parents.
Never before has a stadium show felt this intimate; Styles may be one of the biggest celebrities of our time, but onstage he couldn’t be more downto-earth or earnest. After spending a couple hours in his world, it’s irrefutable that his fame is earned – and while he may owe some of it to his tenure in One Direction, it’s sustained purely by his raw, magnetic talent.