The South’s loudest indie rock band, Wednesday, played a sold-out show at Variety Playhouse on Saturday, March 14. Surrounded by over a thousand screaming fans, lead singer Karly Hartzman and her team of talented musicians performed songs of southern rage, old stories, and love (or the absence of it).
The crowd was not shy about their excitement as Hartzman and crew descended upon the Variety Playhouse stage. They were accompanied by a soft, older country song on blaring speakers. The stage lights dimmed and brightened numerous times before settling at a dark blue hue. The last of the stragglers gathered in the side stands, and the once packed foyer was abruptly vacant. The build of the opening track “Reality TV Argument Bleeds” introduced new and former fans to the vibe of the set, slowly rising to a screaming climax. Wednesday was back in Atlanta.
Hartzman mentioned her gratitude at headlining a sold-out show at Variety Playhouse. She is not new to playing sets in Atlanta, but Playhouse is the band’s biggest venue yet, with a maximum capacity of 1100 people. However, their ability to sell out a venue like Playhouse comes at no surprise; Wednesday has remained a unique presence in the indie rock scene over the last couple of years. After taking over the genre in 2023 with their widely regarded masterpiece, Rat Saw God, their follow-up, Bleeds, was released last September to critical acclaim. As a long-time fan, I was incredibly excited to see how these songs would manifest in a live setting. The intensity of the set, from the tense guitar playing to the engulfing wails of Hartzman, was everything that I had hoped for in excess.
While the set clearly proved Wednesday to be masters of their craft, nothing was taken too seriously. Hartzman would laugh in the middle of a verse, get louder and more dissonant, and make jokes in between songs. The unfiltered disposition of Hartzman represents a quality that many listeners admire. In the age of their more recent widespread success, Wednesday has remained true to themselves, which keeps concertgoers returning for more.
The instrumental content of the setlist varied from ear-piercing rock to stripped-back country tunes. “Candy Breath” explored the louder, shoegaze side of Wednesday. Coated in a deep blue light, Hartzman sang close to the microphone and emulated vulnerable submission to the “sicko world” she wrote about. Alternatively, the predominately acoustic “The Way Love Goes” left enough room in the sonic space for concertgoers to sing along and be heard. The interlude was performed like a chorus, each voice in the room heightening the track’s earnest nature.
Wednesday has been persistently influenced by their southern coming-of-age, whether that be through their narrative-based lyricism or the incorporation of country-style instruments. Pedal steel twists around rhythm guitars and drums. For “Phish Pepsi,” Hartzman picked up a shaker to accompany the track. This fusion of indie rock and country music is something many bands have tried to emulate, but none make it quite as stylish and genuine as Wednesday.
As the south plays a large role in the overarching story of the band, it is no surprise that Karly Hartzman gave a speech about her conflicting love for it. Like many, she has witnessed the power of community and love for one’s neighbors, contrary to the dominating political stance of many southerners. However, she stressed that the dominating conservative stance is not enough reason to leave rural life behind; in fact, it is exactly why one should stay. She ended with, “F*ck ICE. Free Palestine.”
This speech led into the triumphant “Bull Believer”, the eight-minute-long standout track from 2023’s Rat Saw God. It is a song unlike any other, resembling moments of nausea, the chill of a cold night, that feeling of defeat. The last two minutes of the song are dedicated to Hartzman’s screams, and all the anger she holds appears to be left on stage for the audience to bear witness to.
When the last bellow wails from “Bull Believer”, Hartzman and company lead quickly into the closer “Wasp”, the screamo-adjacent powerhouse from Bleeds. Moshes begin in the pit. Bodies fall over each other in visceral emotion. Hartzman indulges this by giving her all, and each line is delivered in a raspy yell. “Wasp” rides the climax of “Bull Believer” and feels like the culmination of the entire show thus far; a vision for where Wednesday is heading, louder and more assured. Her vocal performance is astounding, translating through the speakers as something that can only be described as guttural. Rage fully takes over in the final line of the show, “God’s plan / Unfolds / So slow! / So slow! / So slow!” That it does.