The last time I caught Wednesday was in September 2023, when they opened for Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit at a sold-out Riverside Theater. Back then, they were touring in support of their 2023 release Rat Saw God. That record was praised from all corners of the indie world for its raw lyrics and imagery about the quirks of Americana and the broken and ruined characters and milieus of the South, in the vein of Flannery O’Connor or William Faulkner, intentional or not. That evening, to a largely uninitiated but engaged audience, Wednesday delivered a captivating yet subdued set of songs that leaned heavier on their shoegaze and alt-country influences, than their noise-rock tendencies.
Friday night, in one of the more highly anticipated shows of the year, Wednesday played to another sold-out Milwaukee audience, but this time at historic Turner Hall Ballroom, and more significantly, as the headliner. Now touring in support of their 2025 release Bleeds, praised by many critics as the best LP of 2025, Wednesday shed the opening act veil and snatched the headliner mantle, showcasing all the variations of a band that is hard to label. Although after Friday’s show I am leaning toward crank-rock or grunge-country.
Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, Wednesday is led by the indomitable Karly Hartzman, who took a moment to recognize any of her Tar Heel compatriots in the Milwaukee audience. Hartman is both the lead singer and primary songwriter of the five-piece band, which is rounded out by long time member Alan Miller on drums, Xandy Chelmis on pedal steel, and Ethan Baechtold on bass. Substituting for MJ Lenderman on this tour is Jake “Spyder” Pugh, who filled in flawlessly. It was Spyder’s birthday on Friday, and in his honor Hartzman took a moment to sing a verse or two of “Happy Birthday” and present him with what was rumored to be strawberry cake.
Perhaps feeding off the energy of noise rock openers Gouge Away (more later), Wednesday kicked the show off with “Reality TV Argument Bleeds,” which is also the lead track from Bleeds. Starting slowly with feedback guitar and brooding melodic lyrics, it erupts when Hartzman screams out the dramatic closing lines:
Reality TV argument bleeds
Through the floor when I go to sleep
Walk over the wet boards of a wooden bridge
When I don’t feel like bein’ comfortedMelting outward like a movie burnin’ from the screen
You and your broke-dick sincerity, the bar light flickerin’
The first part of the show featured more of the band’s grunge influences with songs like “Got Shocked,” “Fate Is,” and “Hot Rotten Grass Smell.” Sometimes lost in the discordant Hole-inspired sound of these songs are the dense lyrics and clever turn of phrase, like on “Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)”:
Scratch-off ticket for the education lottery
Found him drowned in the creek, face was puffy
They hung his dirty jersey up in a trophy case
Next to his girlfriend in a picture with a varsity face
The second half of the show took a decided turn toward the “hits” and the more alt-country/indie infused part of Wednesday’s catalogue, to the audience’s delight. While the crowd clearly enjoyed the early part of the set, you could feel the energy spike and the room surge at the opening lyrics of “Elderberry Wine.” To some the “song of summer” for 2025, “Elderberry Wine” may be one of Hartzman’s prettiest, but is still sinister with lyrics like “your eyes are the green of a tornado sky.”
Similarly pleasing were renditions of the indie-rock-ish “Pick Up The Knife” and “Bath County.” As was the cover of Gary Stewart’s “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles),” which the crowd drank up. But the highlight of the night appeared to be the alt-country hit “Townies,” another track from Bleeds, that had the crowd singing and bopping along like a Taylor Swift show, without the friendship bracelets.
Hartzman ended the set with two screamers, one from each of the last two albums. Second to last was “Bull Believer,” from Rat Saw God. Vering back into grunge, the eight-minute emotionally charged song is a distorted dirge about the brutality of Spanish bullfighting, among other subjects, concluding in screams of “finish him!” Concluding the night was “Wasp,” off of Bleeds, a 90-second, high-intensity stinger which brought the set to an emotional and satisfying conclusion. After two exhausting final songs, there would be no encore, but the show had already met or exceeded the expectations of the wall-to-wall crowd.
Opening act Gouge Away is a Florida-based band that also eschews labels, but often gets pegged as post-hardcore or noise-rock. The group, fronted by expressive lead singer Christina Michelle, kicked off their set precisely at 8 p.m. with 50 minutes of non-stop blistering melodic noise rock, if that is a thing. Like Wednesday opening for Isbell, this may have been an odd pairing, but it clearly worked as the band played a great set that teed up the night for Wednesday. As an added bonus, Michelle joined Hartzman on stage for an excellent rendition of the Wednesday track “Phish Pepsi.”
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