Let's Wrestle, gig review: 'The bold u-turn from Scuzz to Indie has paid off'

The Lexington, London

Straddling the sounds of the psych pop pioneers of the 60's and the Laurel Canyon cowboys of the 70's, Let's Wrestle have grown up from their earlier offerings of snot-nosed scuzz-pop as they play songs from their new forthcoming album, 'Let's Wrestle'.

“We are an amateur band and notorious slackers” announces lead singer, Wesley Patrick Gonzalez as he starts the night with new song, “Rain Ruins Revolution”, a song contemplating the torment of inertia in the Angry Young Men of our generation with tenacity and wit. First single of the new album, “Codeine and Marshmallows“ is openly heartfelt, with an intricate guitar riff as Gonzalez compares Stoke Newington to the Old West.

“I'm so Lazy” and “Diana's Hair” from 'In the Court of the Wrestling Lets' (2009) and 'Nursing Home' (produced by Steve Albini in 2011) are played with the same red-faced energy but written when Gonzalez was still a teen, seem out of place alongside songs that muse over their path into maturity with such clarity, diversity and invention.

It is not just in the condensed references to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Harry Nilsson and Fairport Convention but in the band's refined musicianship that prove their bold u-turn from Scuzz to Indie has paid off.