Gig Review: Wet Denim @ San Fran, Wellington – 26/09/2026

There was a distinctly Wellington feeling outside San Fran on Saturday night: cold air, a packed venue, and the reassuring knowledge that somewhere inside, a local band was about to make a lot of noise. With the rain holding off and the bar filling steadily, Wet Denim’s Wellington stop on their three-date Aotearoa tour felt less like a conventional release show and more like a celebration of a band that has quietly grown into one of the capital’s most dependable live acts.

Supporting them were fellow Pōneke four-piece King Hit, who opened the night with a considerably noisier proposition. Their blend of shoegaze haze, post-hardcore aggression and Midwest-emo melancholy immediately established a different sonic landscape from what would follow. Stefan Jenkins and Caitlin Gabb shared guitar and vocal duties, with Gabb’s white Telecaster particularly striking against the darkness of the stage. Felix Bird’s bass and Sebastian Bell’s drums provided the muscular foundation beneath the two guitars, while both Jenkins and Bird contributed backing vocals. Their set moved through Sap, Intro, (Killing Time It’s) Sunday, A Cowboy Needs His Corolla, Alart! Alart!, I Looked in the Rat Hole and Saw a Rat and Asterisk, with the arrangements often feeling larger and more unpredictable than the four-piece setup might suggest. King Hit have the ability to make restraint feel almost as powerful as volume. Their songs build, shift and erupt rather than simply charging from beginning to end, allowing the shoegaze textures to collide with the sharper edges of hardcore and emo. There is a rawness to the presentation, but the underlying arrangements are considerably more considered than the band’s relatively recent emergence might suggest.

By the time Wet Denim appeared, San Fran was very full. The cold Wellington night had brought people through the doors, and the response suggested that plenty had come specifically to hear the new material from Water For Dogs. Wet Denim’s decision to open with the title track was a bold one. Rather than easing the audience into the set with a familiar number, Nick Goodwin, Luca Crampton, Jack Ledword and Joe Ledword immediately launched into the opening statement from their new EP. The distorted guitar arrives with a confidence that translates particularly well to a live room, while Goodwin’s vocals sit somewhere between melodic rock and punk, carrying the emotional directness that has become central to the band’s sound. There was also something satisfyingly casual about the whole presentation. The playing was tight and professional, but the band themselves looked and behaved like four friends who happened to have a very good rock band. The contrast worked. There was no sense of over-produced stagecraft; instead, Wet Denim relied on the songs, the chemistry between the musicians and their increasingly enthusiastic audience.

The kick drum, emblazoned with the Wet Denim logo, became an appropriately simple visual centrepiece behind Jack Ledword. His drumming provides much of the band’s propulsion, while brother Joe’s bass supplies those syrupy, melodic lines that stop the songs from becoming straightforward guitar rock. Together they form a rhythm section that can be forceful without becoming overbearing. Luca Crampton’s guitar and synth work adds another layer to the equation. Where Goodwin’s guitar and voice tend to provide the emotional centre, Crampton can fill the spaces around them, creating the lushness that gives Wet Denim’s music its alt-rock/pop character. It is a sound that can move from distorted guitar weight to something considerably more spacious without ever feeling like the band has abandoned its core identity. The Why and Stuck With You opened the door to the band’s earlier material, before Living Room brought the new EP back into focus. Live, the heavier guitar character of Living Room gave it an additional sense of urgency. The song’s emotional weight is obvious on record, but in a crowded room that heaviness becomes physical. Goodwin’s vocals carry the lyrics without needing to oversell them, while the guitars and rhythm section gradually turn the song’s introspection into something communal.

Outdated followed, another of the new songs that benefits from Wet Denim’s ability to balance vulnerability with volume. Its softer beginnings and sense of longing eventually give way to something much more forceful. The transition works particularly well live because the band understand that a climax means more when the audience has been given somewhere quieter to go first. Frames provided one of the evening’s more pop-adjacent moments. On Water For Dogs, the song demonstrates Goodwin’s vocal range and Wet Denim’s willingness to let melody sit alongside their rockier instincts. In the live setting, those qualities became especially apparent. Crampton’s guitar helped widen the sound while Joe Ledword’s bass remained unusually prominent, giving the song a groove beneath its softer edges.

The middle of the set moved through Cascade, Beautiful Misunderstanding, As They Come and Remedy, giving the audience a chance to hear how the new songs sit alongside the band’s existing repertoire. One of the strengths of the set was that the newer material didn’t feel bolted onto an older catalogue. Instead, there was a clear progression between the songs, with the Water For Dogs material feeling like a natural extension of the band’s established sound. Then came Mirrors. As the latest single from the EP, this was always likely to be one of the evening’s focal points, and the crowd’s response confirmed it. The song’s wandering guitar lines, fluid bass movement and shimmering percussion translate naturally to a live environment. What can feel reflective and slightly guarded on record becomes more immediate when performed in front of a room full of people who already know the words.

That audience participation was one of the defining features of the night. San Fran wasn’t merely full; it was engaged. People sang along, the band joked with the crowd between songs, and there was a sense of familiarity that made the performance feel more like a gathering of Wellington’s music community than a formal concert. Silence followed Mirrors, providing another major moment from Water For Dogs. Its introspective opening allows Goodwin’s voice to sit closer to the listener before the guitars gradually take over. Live, that contrast between intimacy and impact was particularly effective. The band allowed the quieter passages room to breathe before bringing the full four-piece back into the frame.

From there came Calm and Again and Again before Wet Denim left the stage. The departure was short-lived. The encore began with Another Hit, stripped back to guitar and vocals rather than the full band. It was a useful reminder that beneath Wet Denim’s polished electric-rock arrangements are songs that can stand up without the machinery surrounding them. Goodwin’s voice was suddenly exposed, and the intimacy of the moment provided a strong contrast to the full-volume performance that had preceded it. The full band then returned for Lonely For a While, bringing the evening to its final conclusion.

What made the night work so well was the balance between professionalism and informality. Wet Denim clearly take their music seriously, but they don’t appear interested in making that seriousness feel self-important. They joked with the crowd, looked comfortable on stage and allowed the audience to become part of the performance. At the same time, the musicianship was consistently assured. There is a pleasing contradiction at the centre of Wet Denim. Their songs are emotionally open, sometimes dealing in longing, uncertainty and the messier parts of relationships, yet the band deliver them with an easy going confidence. The polished rock arrangements don’t remove the vulnerability from the songwriting; they give it somewhere to go. That’s probably why Water For Dogs works so naturally as a live record. The EP’s influences and nostalgic rock sensibilities are certainly audible — from the broad guitar language of Kings Of Leon to softer pop-rock touches reminiscent of Coldplay and the rhythmic instincts of funkier alternative rock — but Wet Denim aren’t simply reproducing those sounds. They have folded them into something recognisably their own.

Saturday night’s San Fran show demonstrated that the songs can survive the transition from headphones to a crowded room, and perhaps more importantly, that the audience is ready to take that journey with them. With Christchurch already behind them and Auckland still to come at Whammy Bar on 3rd October, Wet Denim are taking Water For Dogs around the country at exactly the point where their live reputation seems to be catching up with their songwriting ambitions. For a cold Wellington night, there was remarkably little distance between band and audience. The room was full, the songs were being sung back at the stage, and four musicians who still managed to look completely at home in their own casual clothes were delivering a remarkably assured rock show. Wet Denim may be dressed down, but there is nothing casual about the way this band has developed. Water For Dogs is an ambitious step forward on record.

Photo Credit: Nina fon McMillin for Muzic.NZ
Photos from Wet Denim’s Christchurch show @ A Rolling Stone on 25/09/2026.