On Friday, October 17th, at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, the North Carolina rock band Wednesday put on a brutally slick show for a packed house. Touring their latest album Bleeds, Wednesday are masters at combining elements of folk, shoegaze, noise-rock, slacker, all into one hodgepodge wall of sound that packs a powerful punch with nowhere to run to.
Even with a rather late start time for a show, the opening band, Friendship came on at 9PM and got the crowd swaying. The Philadelphia rock band had plenty of slow-burning songs with victorious build ups leading to silky guitar solos, plucky bass lines, and country-tinged vocals eerily similar to Orville Peck. Friendship’s set included a handful of songs from their latest record Caveman Wakes Up including “Resident Evil,” “Tree of Heaven” and All Over the World.”
Scanning the LA crowd, there were plenty of mustached men in vintage Levi jeans, camo hats and thrifted button-up shirts, ready to boogie to Wednesday. At about 10:15PM, Weezer’s song “L.A. Girlz” blasted through the PA system as Karly Hartzman and the gang walked out on stage as everyone cheered. Although it was a slight nod to playing in the city of Angels, it is funny to think that the band was subtly telling the audience, “L.A. girls, please act your age.”
The first song of the set was the opening track off of the new album Bleeds, “Reality TV Argument Bleeds.” Through screeching guitars, some soft steel pedal guitar, banging drums and Karly’s nonchalant but heavily present vocals, Wednesday is such a powerhouse to witness in the flesh. Combining elements of vastly different genres together feels like listening to an early 2000s mash-up one would find rummaging through LimeWire files in the best way possible. Placing My Bloody Valentine guitars comfortably next to Waxahatchee-like vocals is an unpredictable match made in heaven.
From there, the set continued with more face-melting guitars, mind-blowing vocals and incredible stage presence; Wednesday truly is the real deal. Dipping into their back catalogue a bit, they performed a few tracks from the 2023 album, Rat Saw God including “Bath County,” “Got Shocked” and “Hot Rotten Grass Smell.” Even without MJ Lenderman as the current lead guitarist for this tour because MJ is on his own solo side quest, substitute guitarist Jake Pugh held it down and pumped new life into these viscerally bold and beloved moments in the band’s discography. Every single member on stage brought the heat from Alan Miller’s precise and turbulent drumming, Xandy Chelmis’ luscious pedal steel playing and Ethan Baechtold’s sleek bass guitar, all commanded by Karly’s cathartic and larger than life vocals, there is so much to love about this little band from North Carolina.
The songs that shined the brightest during the show were of course from the brilliant new record. Tracks like “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)” and “Pick Up That Knife” were gut-punching. “Wasp” had the entire GA section jumping up and down the entire song, and tracks like “Townies” and “Elderberry Wine” were sweet, campfire-like sing-a-longs. A highlight of the show was the cover of Lucinda Williams’ song, “Lonely Girl.” It was a softer moment during the set where the steel pedal had the spotlight as Karly sang the lyrics, “Sweet sad songs sung by lonely girls” as if she wrote them herself.
As the night was inching close to 11:30PM, Karly mentioned that the band does not believe in encores and wanted to chug right along until the very end. But before diving into the last few songs, she praised anyone in the LA crowd planning on attending the No Kings protests happening the next day and using her platform to say, “Fuck ICE.” The crowd cheered in solidarity as Wednesday hopped into the second to last song, “Bull Believer.” Through sludgy guitars and seizure-inducing strobe lights, Wednesday really left it all out on the stage and every soul in The Fonda Theatre gave them all the love right back.
As incredible of an album Bleeds is, Wednesday is a band that must be seen live to understand the full picture. They come out the gates blazing on every single sonic front, and it’s groups like Wednesday that remind us why live music is such a soul-cleansing experience. Check out their website to see upcoming tour dates.
Setlist:
- Reality TV Argument Bleeds
- Got Shocked
- Fate Is…
- Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)
- Hot Rotten Grass Smell
- Phish Pepsi
- Quarry
- Bitter Everyday
- Pick Up That Knife
- Lonely Girls (Lucinda Williams cover)
- Twin Plagues
- Candy Breath
- Gary’s II
- Bath County
- The Way Love Goes
- Elderberry Wine
- Townies
- Bull Believer
- Wasp
All photos by Owen Ela
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