Wet, w/ Kelsey Lu at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (06 Feb 2016)

Kelsey Lu

The evening opened with North Carolinian to NYC cellist/singer Kelsey Lu, playing an ethereal 45 min. set of soul-tinged experimental dream pop, amongst  little lighting.  In fact, the glint of her triangular shaped earrings and piping along the brim of her hat, were the most defined image we could see for most of her intimate and hushed set.



She was vocally appreciative of the audience being generally respectful and quiet through songs like ‘Morning After Coffee’, ‘The Bend’, and a song dedicated to her grandmother.  Looping her own sounds to build a song, Lu moved from cello to guitar in her second half with equally dramatic results.  With a self-released EP coming and being one of Questlove/Okayplayer’s 16 to Watch for 2016, the future seems bright indeed.



Our loss for not catching Wet on their last couple times in town (2014 at the Entry and 2015 at the Cedar opening for Tobias Jesso Jr.), a mistake we won’t make again.  Maybe it was because their name makes them difficult to find info online (almost too simple a name in the internet age, like bands The Men, The The, Garbage, etc), though the band obviously recognizes this, cheekily parking their website at kanyewet.biz.



A dark stage and emanating low-end hum introduced Wet, touring as a four-piece (vocalist Kelly Zutrau, and multi-instrumentalists Joe Valle, and Marty Sulkow, joined by a touring drummer) to the enthralled audience.  The band’s dreamy indie electronic sound takes its time to percolate, similar to UK band London Grammar, and is a soundtrack for timeless wandering in this plane of existence… and others.



The brooding easy lyrics of ‘Deadwater’ and its opening lines “If I could be stronger and if you were just older, we might last this out longer but the task just gets harder” had the faithful singing along and singer Zutrau swayed slowly in her white oxford shirt while electronic drums and echoed jangly guitar framed the vocals.

Kelly Zutrau and Marty Sulkow

Vocalist Zutrau didn’t speak much between songs, maybe partly to keep the ambiance intact, and partly because she admitted late in the set, that she was battling a bad cold.  The sound of crickets chirping in the background weren’t due to any silence before ‘These Days’; rather, were part of the song’s intro, an aching slow burn of optimism.



‘Don’t Want to be Your Girl’ was recognized immediately by the crowd when played mid-set, one of the band’s earliest songs to break out.  ‘All the Ways’, the band’s newest single brought tempo up a bit with Zutrau jokingly threatening to fight someone after the song, frustrated somewhat by the band’s winter touring – “I’m sick, we’ve been on the road two weeks, the van sucks… but we’re here for you!”, she said smiling. “I’m just kidding”.



The band ended their night with the song they had played on The Tonight Show last month, ‘Weak’ and its lyric, “You get me out of my head;  You get me out of my mind;  You get me out of my dreams”, which describes the music of Wet rather perfectly.  Based on their performance, we won’t be forgetting them anytime soon.