The buzz truly started a few years back, but North Carolina’s Wednesday have made a rapid ascent over the last year with the release of their acclaimed album Rat Saw God. Led by Karly Hartzman, who does most of the singing, the group’s fresh approach to Southern rock – marrying elements of alt-country, grunge, and shoe gaze – has clearly struck a nerve with fans both young and old. The band’s Portland, Oregon appearance at the Pickathon festival last summer was raved about, and clearly that enthusiasm was contagious as the band returned to the Rose City on Monday, May 20th for a packed show at Revolution Hall.
Los Angeles outfit Draag opened with a show that saw this quintet reveling in their weirdness as they stirred up a sound that gyrated between moments of grating and others that were highly melodic. Adrian Acosta and Jessica Huang handled vocals that were at times ghostly and haunting, while at other times screamed with blood-curdling intensity as the band moved from dark wave to art-punk, industrial, and general musical weirdness. The highlight of the set was watching drummer Eric Fabbro in action as he demonstrated extreme talent and speed on his kit to bring the music to new heights.
Taking the stage wearing the kind of low-key t-shirts and jeans worn by their 90s alt-country and grunge heroes, the members of Wednesday were clearly there to make more of a musical statement than a fashion statement. Opening with the slow crawling barrage of feedback-laced guitars of “Twin Plagues” before the jagged and thrashing “Hot Rotten Grass Smell,” the band immediately showcased their ability to craft songs that are almost brutally heavy at times while contrasting it with Hartzman’s melodic and poignant vocals. The band would play a handful of new songs throughout their set, starting with “Wound Up Here,” which featured Ethan Baechtold’s heavy bass notes adding backbone to a cacophony of guitar noise from Jake Lenderman that is easily one of their catchiest songs to date. They would lean into their love of country rock with the twangy “Chosen to Deserve” only to follow it up with Lenderman singing and laying down viciously mournful guitar work on a nearly flawless cover of the Drive-By Truckers classic “Women without Whiskey,” made more significant by the fact that Truckers frontman and Portland resident Patterson Hood was in attendance. As the band trucked on, songs like the sprawling “Turkey Vultures” erupted into grungy punk bliss while “What’s So Funny” was dark and moody with slices of feedback chainsawing through and giving way to mosh-inducing speed. The new song “Candy Breath” featured soaring guitars and infectious harmonies that indicated the band was moving towards a sound with wider appeal before “Quarry” – arguably their best-known song – led to moshing and crowd surfing when frenzied enthusiasm.
While the heaviness ebbed and flowed all night as the band moved between moments of tenderness and vulnerability to almost demon-purging high points of rocking out, they saved some of the rawest points for the end of the set. “Bull Believer” came in waves as the band stretched out and allowed it to morph into a true work of rock and roll drama before Hartzman took on the role of hardcore vocalist for the set-closing “Wasp.” It was at this point, with Hartzman wailing her ass off and her bandmates playing at max intensity while an infatuated crowd of mostly young hipsters moshed in jubilation, that Wednesday’s potential to morph into a big-name rock act was on full display. In this sense, their Portland show felt like a win for the kind of rock and roll music that represents the ever-changing dynamics of the South and will hopefully mean larger stages for a very deserving young group.
All photos by Greg Homolka
