Wednesday at Scala

Wednesday

Mspaint

Scala, 20 August 2024

After a year of being obsessed with their last album, Rat Saw God, I finally saw Wednesday (on a Tuesday)! And it was a glorious blast of feedback drenched country punk: everything I hoped it would be and more, in fact.

It's been a while since I've been to the Scala and I had forgotten how small it is really but I was still thankful to find a plum spot at the front of the stage, although I was a little nervous when I realised the support band was a proper, sweaty, shouty rock band from Mississippi called Mspaint. I needn't of worried too much, as it turned out the synth-punk group were loads of fun.

Mspaint are a four-piece, made up of a drummer, bassist, synth player (not sure I can call him a keyboardist, it was more pressing buttons for pre-recorded sounds) and a big, hairy vocalist called Dee-dee, who reminded me of a punk Meatloaf. He was definitely the focal-point of the band, striding up and down the stage, growling and shouting into the microphone, jumping and grimacing, all while wearing embroidered jeans with one leg cut off. 

At times they reminded me of At The Drive-In and sometimes of Idles (they probably would hate both those comparisons), with the aggressive, syllabic vocal delivery reminiscent of Fugazi and similar hardcore artists, but they probably owe a lot to 80s synth pop too.

Although they were energetic (mainly Deedee though, the rest of the band pretty much stayed in place behind him as he walked around the stage, so huge he pretty much dominated it) there was something that didn't quite click for me. I had a huge smile for most of their performance so they were without a doubt fun, but I definitely didn't get that incredible excitement that I was witnessing something truly special the way I did when I first saw ATDI, but maybe that's an impossible ideal to reach. Nonetheless, they were a great opening act and I'm glad I caught them. 

I felt a little like a MJ Lenderman stalker, because just a couple of weeks ago I saw him doing an in-store for his solo stuff at Rough Trade East and even asked him about this show, and now here I am again standing in front of him for this sold out Wednesday show (his other band). But while he's the guitarist in Wednesday, the band is very much about singer-guitarist Karly Hartzman, who comes on stage and is absolutely tiny and so striking, wearing a trucker cap, a Sonic Youth raglan shirt, blue shorts, cowboy boots and black lipstick. Somehow this crazy mix of styles works and she looks incredibly cool. 

The band launch into a new song called Pick Up That Knife and it sounds fantastic, noisy and fuzzy, a glorious mix of alt-country and noise pop. Karly informs us that these are the final shows of the tour promoting Rat Saw God and that they will be playing lots of new songs tonight as their new album is already recorded and ready to go. 

To be fair, it's been a year since Rat Saw God came out and won my heart. I didn't discover it in time to see them when they first started touring it, so I have had to wait a year to finally hear these amazing songs live (I have had the ticket for this show for six months!), but they are probably fed up promoting the album by now and it's always exciting to hear fresh new songs, so everyone seems pumped at the chance to hear new potential favourites. Plus the four new tracks played tonight all sound like the new record is going to be incredible.

We do get a lot of the last record though, thankfully for me, starting with album opener Hot Rotten Grass Smell and leaving the amazing building scream-fest Bull Believer, almost to last with Hartzman inviting us all the scream with her. "I'll be screaming to alleviate the sadness I feel about what is happening in Gaza," she says, to appreciative claps. And she really delivers on that front, screaming from her soul, her voice becoming enmeshed with the droning, noise of the guitars and distorted pedal steel. She is a magnetic frontwoman and, while I enjoy seeing Jake Lenderman shredding, Sonic Youth-style on the guitar too, it's hard to take your eyes from her. 

The rest of the band is great too, particularly the aforementioned lap steel player Xandy Chelmis, bassist Ethan Baechtold and drummer Alan Miller, but there is something about the chemistry between Lenderman and Hartzman that make them particularly thrilling. They used to be a couple and I do wonder how much longer Lenderman will remain in the band as his solo career really seems to be taking off, particularly with his new album out in September, but while they are in the band together, I have to appreciate that special something they have together and I'm glad I got to witness it.

There were some lovely, more melodic moments too when Hartzman told us, "Now for some country music", and treated us to the bittersweet Chosen To Deserve, and after singing about how they drove home from Dollywood "play Drive-By Truckers songs real loud" in Bath County, they then gave us a actual cover of a Drive-By Truckers song, Women Without Whiskey, with Lenderman taking lead vocals. It was magical and felt perfect.

Before singing the tender (or "softy-wofty" one as she called it) Formula One, in which Hartzman's voice sounded truly plaintive and wonderful, she told us how they had seen PJ Harvey play live on the weekend and appreciated how Polly would just smile serenely at the end of each song, like the queen she is. "I wish I could do that," she said, but it's obvious Hartzman's has her thing going on and it's just as great.

The song Quarry (which must be said does sound a lot like Waterloo Sunset but definitely goes its own way too), not only has the crowd singing along, but also a bit of a mosh pit going on, which surprised me but there was so much energy and joy in the crowd, it was contagious and Hartzman even said, she feeds off the energy and seemed buzzed by it.

I was disappointed we only got one song from their second album, Twin Plagues, but The Burned Down Dairy Queen did sound a beautiful noisy mix of lovely harmony vocals, grungy guitars and lap steel, so I can't grumble too much. Hartzman also told us she actually got an electric shock from her microphone before the show, so maybe that's why Got Shocked sounded particularly wild and electric (ha!) tonight. It was thrilling to hear it anyway.

The band ended on a new song called Wasp, which saw Hartzman put down her guitar for the first time that night, grab the microphone and belt down a fantastically shouty, hardcore punk rock number, that saw her bending over and screaming for her life in the most awesome way.

And then they were gone! No encore! Which as you know I always appreciate. It was absolutely perfect as it was, nothing else was needed (despite my grumbles about hearing more of Twin Plagues of course, even then I liked the way it ended).

I never really watched any of Wednesday's performances online, just listened to their three albums religiously over the past year and had a vision in my head what it would be like to see them live and it more than lived up to it. I love this band, they remind me of everything I loved about alternative music in the 90s but in a fresh new way, and I'm thrilled they have already recorded their next album, because I can't wait to hear more!