Asheville, North Carolina’s Wednesday might just be the most buzzed-about indie rock band of 2023; the April release of their latest album, Rat Saw God, was met with near-universal acclaim and set the group off on what’s scheduled to be a whirlwind year of touring around the world as they continue climbing up festival lineups. That whirlwind tour brought the band to Brooklyn this past Tuesday where their performance to a packed house at the Music Hall of Williamsburg proved that the hype the band is experiencing now is likely only the beginning for them. A notion supported by the fact that weeks before the show even took place the band had announced a January date at the much larger Brooklyn Steel.
The night began with a strong opening set from Chicago indie folk outfit Tenci, who played a smattering of winding, entrancing tunes from their two albums including highlights “Two Cups”, “Sharp Wheels”, and “Blue Spring”. Wednesday took the stage soon after and almost immediately a swathe of fans were working their way up to the front, squeezing into any gap in the crowd that got them closer to the stage as the quintet launched into the short, heavy blast of Rat Saw God-opener “Hot Rotten Grass Smell”. The excitement of the fans only became more and more palpable as the night went on, much to the enjoyment of the band. “Some of you are so theatrical when you sing along, it’s cute” noted singer-songwriter Karly Hartzman with a giggle a few songs in, struggling to sing her serious lyrics without a smile breaking across her face. She also pointed out a number of attendees who she’d spotted or chatted with at other gigs this tour, as clear a sign as any that the band is building something of a devoted following.
Musically Wednesday sounded impeccably tight, swinging through a selection of their strongest material without missing a beat. Hartzman’s vocals were even more impassioned than they appear on record while the band showed off the kind of impressive command of dynamics that would make their grunge forebears proud; just as capable of conjuring up loud and grimy squalls of feedback and washes of shoegaze guitars as they were of sitting back and letting the song take center stage. Where a song like “Formula One” would find the musicians creating a gentle swirling accompaniment – marked by one of Wednesday’s most distinctive sonic elements in Xandy Chelmis’ sweeping pedal steel playing – around Hartzman’s mournful melody, elsewhere a tune like “Billboard”, off of 2020’s I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone, might have Chelmis leading things to a dramatic close with a fiery, wailing solo on his lap steel. Elsewhere they churned out rollicking country rock sing-alongs with the one-two punch of “Chosen to Deserve” and their cover of Gary Stewart’s “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinking Doubles)” and hit one of their heaviest points with the pulverizing “Got Shocked”, with a standout performance from drummer Alan Miller.
While much of the set was devoted to material from Rat Saw God – including a stellar rendition of “Bath County” that welcomed the first mosh pit of the night along with heavy-hitter “Quarry”, which seemed to have the whole room moving in time with the sticky pop-rock chorus – the band paid ample attention to their past albums as well, with songs like “Gary’s” and “Fate Is…” proving to be some of the show’s most exciting moments; the former featuring intertwining solos from Chelmis and guitarist MJ Lenderman and the latter sending the crowd into another fit of moshing with every scream from Hartzman.
As she started to introduce what was to be the final song of the night, explaining that they don’t typically play encores (“we think they’re dumb”), Hartzman found herself rambling and realized maybe she wasn’t ready to end the show just yet, and with the encouragement of the crowd and her band decided to add one extra song to the set, launching into the slow-build of “Turkey Vultures” with a laugh as she watched a circle pit open up in the crowd and cover nearly the entire floor of the venue. “That’s as close to an encore as you’ll ever get from us” she noted afterward. Before closing things out, Hartzman encouraged fans to visit openers Tenci at the merch stand where they were collecting donations for trans and queer youth in the South and dedicated the “scream that’s about to come” to people who’ve been harmed by oppressive laws being passed in the region. And what a scream it was! The band tore into the epic “Bull Believer” with a passion and the fans responded in kind; moshing, jumping, singing, and pushing towards the stage until the song built up into its fearsome, thundering finale, full of crashing cymbals and screeching guitars as Hartzman let out her finest wail of the night.
