Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – The Asheville, N.C.-based band Wednesday recently rolled on through The Bellwether. Over the last 12 months, this band has been one of the busiest out there. If one peruses Wednesday’s social media accounts, you’ll find that they started touring in April 2023 with maybe just three different month-long breaks between that time and now. Opening for Wednesday was LA-based Draag.
Wednesday has played all across the United States. They hit up Europe twice. And spent time in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. The hard work has increased their fan base, for sure. Back in May 2023, they sold out the Teragram Ballroom. For their May 2024 show, they made it to The Bellwether.
The band took the stage with Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” blasting over the speakers. As the band hooked up their instruments and did a little tuning, lead singer Karly Hartzman could be seen doing a little hip shaking to the song.
Their songs have mini-stories to tell. Their fuzzy “Bath County” has the following lyrics, “Kid in Bath County, Virginia. Sippin’ piss-colored bright yellow Fanta. Heard someone died in the Planet Fitness parking lot. Fire trucks rolled in and people stood around.” Hmm, perhaps Planet Fitness isn’t too thrilled with that mention?
Having a fully engaged audience that’s having fun in their own way is especially important to the band. Prior to their more chill song “Billboard,” Hartzman mentioned that the band loves it when the crowd moshes to their songs. But . . . the band wanted people to segregate based on how they wanted to enjoy the night. Those who wanted to mosh were requested to move to one side of the floor while those who didn’t were asked to move to the other side.
They stated that their song “Billboard” was the perfect song for people to move to their designated spot. When “Billboard” ended, the band launched into the more mosh friendly “Hot Rotten Grass Smell.” The band did mention that there was an art to mosh pits. During the more aggressive moments of the song where lyrics such as “Neon sign at the nail salon turned off” were sung, they expected the mosh pit to go wild. During the song’s bridge where the song slowed down during the lyrics “Your closet froze after you left,” it was expected that the crowd would chill for a moment before going full on moshing once again.
Even though the band has been on a full on tour for the last twelve months, that doesn’t mean the band hasn’t had time to write new material, which no doubt occurred doing those three individual tour breaks . . . . so this band does not relax. “Candy Breath” was one of those songs that will be included in their upcoming 2026 album.
A groan could be heard from the audience about how far off that album release is, but on the bright side, Hartzman mentioned that everyone in the crowd would be able to say they heard the song months before everyone else. One can also expect that the band will be coming on through Los Angeles sometime in 2026 to support that new album and maybe they’ll be playing at even a larger venue at that time.
Their country genre-inspired song “Chosen to Deserve” got wild approval from the crowd. The band then brought up a surprise guest singer, Jessica Lea Mayfield. Hartzman called her a “musical hero” and that “this person is the reason Wednesday sounds like it does, because I learned how to play guitar watching videos of her and she has a Southern accent . . . and I dyed my hair pink, because I was obsessed with this person, I really looked up to them.” With that introduction, the crowd gave a loud cheer as the band played Mayfield’s song “Seein* Starz.”
The song “Quarry” probably could have a movie made about it. The crowd sang along to lyrics such as “Georgie set fire to acres of cotton settin’ off model rockets. The kid from the Jewish family got the preacher’s kid pregnant. . . . . Somebody called the cops on Mandy and her boyfriend. When they busted in they found that her house was a front for a mob thing. They pulled guns and cocaine from the drywall wrapped in newspaper.” The song “Reality TV” had the heavy beats that got the mosh pit going once again as well as some pogo dancing.
The most amusing moment of the night happened shortly later during the song “Fate Is.” Mayfield totally forgot the lyrics to the song. The beginning notes to the song continued to repeat as everyone could see her thinking hard to get those lyrics from brain to lips. Eventually she turned to her bandmate for help. After being provided the first few lines, she let out her frustration at her brain freeze, “Jesus Christ.” The band let it all hang out for the song “Bull Believer” with perhaps a little encouragement from the venue light crew that had fun hitting the light switches to align with the thrilling song that ended up with the lead guitarist breaking his guitar strap.
Opening up the night was Draag, which Wednesday predicted will soon be hanging out at the Met Gala. The Los Angeles-based band per their press release explains their sound as follows, “Draag are experts in a strain of shoegaze and electronic experimentation similar to Spirit of the Beehive.”
Their first trio of songs hit exactly that note. “Demonbird” sonic sounds got the crowd hopping. And maybe that song was getting ready to prepare the audience for what was coming up next as it had a slightly heavier undertone than the first two songs. “Recharge” was that next song and it created a hardcore change-up shock to the audience that gave it a big round of appreciation. The song has an industrial headbanging sound that has no connection with shoegaze influence other than maybe the under-current of melody.
If you’re interested in hearing that song, you should listen to their recently released EP Actually, the quiet is nice. The song does mellow out towards the end and drifts into quietness. It fits the EP title perfectly. The band’s final song “Goldilocks Zone” was a banger of a tune that ended with a cliffhanger of guitars raised high and then a moment of silence that needed resolution and the crowd got it as the band launched into an addendum that got folks hopping along.
Wednesday setlist: Toothache, Bath County, Twin Plagues, Billboard, Candy Breath, Hot Rotten Grass Smell, Wound Up Here, What’s So Funny, Chosen to Deserve, Seein* Starz (Jessica Lea Mayfield cover), Quarry, Reality TV, Got Shocked, Fate Is, Bull Believer. Encore: Wasp.
Draag setlist: Midnight Paradise, Mitsuwa, Demonbird, Recharge, Orb weaver, The day has come, Goldilocks Zone
Listen to Draag here:
