“Bleeds,” Wednesday’s critically acclaimed 2025 album, is a blessing. While the band’s blend of earnest homegrown country storytelling and crushing shoegaze riffs had already made them one of the hottest bands in modern rock, “Bleeds” — with its airtight musicianship, deft balance of heartfelt comedy and personal tragedy, irresistible hooks and astonishing vocal performances by frontwoman Karly Hartzman — established them as one of the best. While the loss of MJ Lenderman, one of my favorite modern musicians, as a touring member was devastating news for me (and, if you’re reading this, it probably was for you as well), I still was champing at the bit to see them live.
Last week, the stars finally aligned, and I headed to First Avenue for what I hoped would be an earth-shattering rock concert. Opening band Gouge Away delivered a decent set, animating an already ecstatic crowd with one noisy hardcore banger after another. After they left the stage, the crowd had already worn itself out from moshing, but they were given very little time to rest. Less than a half hour later, the curtain lifted to reveal the main stage: a room decorated with framed paintings of “Bleeds” artwork. Wednesday emerged from backstage to the kind of applause that only legendary bands get, and the moment they started playing, I forgot that I had ever seen another concert before in my life.
Wednesday is a loud band, and I mean loud. Hartzman and Spider, her fellow guitarist, turn power chords into towers of fuzz, over which pedal steel player Xandi Chelmis shrieks and wails with his slide. Speaking of wails, Hartzman’s vocals, which are already powerful on record, reach new emotional heights in a live setting. Every break and crack in her voice felt entirely earned. With such a loud and effects-heavy mix, it would be easy for the rhythm section — bassist Ethan Baechtold and drummer Alan Miller — to get drowned out; however, the spot-on sound mixing characteristic of First Avenue kept them afloat, giving the mist of guitar effects a strong rhythmic foundation.
The set mostly consisted of tracks from “Bleeds,” and was all the better for it. The acerbically sad lyrics and gigantic choruses of cuts like “Townies” and “Elderberry Wine” were meant to be drunkenly belted in a room full of strangers. Fortunately, they also remembered to play some of their bangers from previous records. I had not heard the early single “Fate Is” before the night, but it is now rapidly becoming one of my favorites. “Rat Saw God,” the band’s breakout album, was also well represented. Standouts included “Quarry,” whose vignettes of Southern tragedy hit even harder when sung by a crowd, and the eight-minute album centerpiece “Bull Believer.”
The highlight of the set, however, was not a Wednesday original, but a cover of Gary Newman’s classic cornball country hit “She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinking Double).” Wednesday’s version, first appearing on their 2022 covers album “Mowing The Leaves Instead of Piling ‘em Up,” turns it into a wonderful fuzzy mess, and brought the audience to hysterics. Hartzman’s vocals, despite vanquishing the chaotic mix, were no match for the sheer volume of the crowd as it screamed along.
Wednesday may seem, on paper, like a cutting edge, or daresay, an experimental band. But what makes them great is that their music feels so deeply familiar and approachable. Here’s a country girl talking frankly about her life, making you laugh, cry and yearn for the past while a bunch of guys who like all the same music you do jam it out. They have the makings of a veteran touring act, the kind that will draw crowds of devotees for years to come. After their show at First Avenue, I was sure of one thing: no matter what happens in my life, I will eventually find myself back in the front rows of a Wednesday concert, reminiscing on how simple life was before.
