Show Lineup: Zsela, Joy Again, Wet
Venue: Hotel Congress (Tucson AZ)
Date: 4/24/2022
Description: Wet is an indie pop group hailing from Brooklyn, NY known for their ethereal, dreamy, glittery take on bedroom pop that has gained the attention of not only stereotype indie sad girls like me, but all indie genre lovers around. To kick off the West Coast leg of their 2022 tour for their 2021 album “The Letter Blue”, they first stopped in Tucson, and it was a great and intimate show.
To start, alt-indie artist Zsela was up and performed a few songs from her 2020 EP, “Ache of Victory”. Her voice was unlike anything I have heard live before, and she was so chill and down to earth while performing. She mentioned she is also from Brooklyn and that she was excited to open for the West Coast leg of the tour.
The next opener was Joy Again. Joy Again is joining Wet for only a few tour stops, and it was really cool to see them perform at this show, especially since they do have a very different sound from Wet. Joy Again is an indie pop/rock band from Pennsylvania, they define themselves as a “quaker rock band” on Twitter. There was excitement in the crowd to see them perform, they have a considerable amount of streams on Spotify and their song ‘Looking Out for You’ (2016) went viral on Tiktok within this past year. They had a really fun set and had a fun dynamic with the crowd. My favorite song of theirs was ‘Lymes’ which they prefaced by asking “has anyone here ever had Lyme’s disease?”. Both openers were great, and it built up the excitement in the crowd to see the headliner, Wet, perform.
After around a 20 minute break, Wet, who is composed of Kelly Zutrau (lead vocal), Joe Valle (multi-instrument), and Marty Sulkow (lead guitar) came out and started the show off with “Larabar”, their last track off “The Letter Blue”. The electronic elements and vocal chops at the end of the song sounded great live, and it created a nice segue into “Clementine”, off of the same album, and then to “Almost”, which is off of their new EP “Letter Blue (Reprise)”, which came out less than two weeks ago. They continued their set, and it was clear that the majority of the audience were true fans of the group and appreciated them, after every few songs a member of the crowd would yell “thank you for making music”, or something of the like. Wet’s dynamic onstage was really intimate, supported by the small venue, meaningful lyrics, and the audience’s dedication to their music. You could tell how genuinely humble and appreciative Zutrau was to the crowd, continuously giving her thanks and saying how excited they were to be there. After their performance of “Where Did the Day Go”, off of the new EP, Zutrau said “That was off of our new EP, we aren’t very good at playing it yet”, to which the crowd yelled and gestured in disagreement. Zutrau then said “This is a great crowd, so supportive”.
I was surprised with how many older songs of theirs they played as well, including “Deadwater”, “Don’t Wanna be Your Girl”, “It’s All in Vain”, and a few more songs from their prior albums. I was pleasantly surprised they played “Body”, off of their 2016 album, “Don’t You”. You could tell how talented the group was and how well they connected together, Zutrau’s voice was great live, Valle is a great bassist and it was cool to see him use an electronic drum pad in addition to the drummer on a set in the back, and Sulkow brought sweet, dreamlike riffs on the electric guitar. You could see how Valle and Sulkow played together, especially at the end of “Far Cry” where the band performed the song and did a whole instrumental piece and encore at the end, complete with Zutrau running off of the stage and eventually returning, then to play “Bound” and finish off the show with “You’re the Best”.
The name “Wet” is very fitting for the sound the group procures. If I had to picture their sound it would be glittery, but in the way water sparkles. Their sound generates freeing, relaxing vibes, and this was definitely present at the show, considering I have never seen them live before. Pairing this with their beautiful lyricism and presence, it creates a great feeling to watch them.
Wet at Club Congress was unlike any show I have seen before. From the intimacy, dedicated crowd, well-rounded setlist, humble presence, and great music and sound, I would definitely see Wet live again. I was stoked to see them on the opening show of their tour this year, and I can’t wait to see clips of them later on in this tour, and to listen to music they will release in the future.
Reviewer Name: (Jenna Casares)
Date of Review: 4/25/2022