In the span of only a couple weeks, Wednesday went from a band I haven’t even heard of, to a band I was frantically pedalling through the streets of Montreal to catch on time. After some last-minute developments, I had newfound plans to catch their sold-out show at Club Soda, which I was so excited for.
I walked into the venue shortly after Daffo started their set. Immediately, their sound, with the help of a full band, complemented that of the night’s headliners to a tee. No doubt their grungy, indie-rock stylings resonated well with the young crowd, which was already packed to the gills by the time I got in. Montreal did what it does best during Daffo’s set, giving the opening artist its full respect and attention, hopefully making the Philadelphia performer feel at home in a foreign country.
Wednesday walked on to a roar of applause from an enthusiastic crowd. I was shocked to find out that such a new band already has five albums of original material to their name. The night’s setlist dipped into a good chunk of their catalogue with an emphasis on their new record, Bleeds. Their whole set was a genre-bending experience from front to back. It featured massive, shoegaze-inspired walls of sound courtesy of heavily distorted guitars, to indie-folk tunes where a pedal steel and frontwoman Karly Hartzman’s North Carolinian drawl slipped out, giving songs like Elderberry Wine its country tinge.
Their setlist was unpredictable yet seamlessly cohesive, and the crowd’s vibrancy never waned through the band’s performance. The younger audience didn’t necessarily mosh, but stayed put in their square foot of space, while enthusiastically jumping along to the more high-energy tracks, sometimes all the way back to the last few rows. My view from the first row of the raised platform right behind the FOH engineer made for some stellar views and sounds.
As an aside, I was shocked at the band’s ability to find a wizard-for-hire to run sound. The show’s audio quality remained consistent, even while he was absent for a majority of the show. Suppose he’s touring with the band and has their entire set on lock, so if anything, I’m impressed. As a sound guy myself, maybe I need to re-evaluate my own workflow now that I know it’s possible. The sound stayed fantastic whether Wednesday was ripping a heavy rock banger or a stripped-down acoustic number, and all the instrument switches involved between. Meanwhile, the occasional yellow-tinged glow of the lights cast over the sold-out crowd provided a warmth that made me forget we were in between snowstorms in this city.
After a very Gen-Z-coded rant about our city’s newly elected “conservative” mayor, the headliners played a few more tracks, as the night’s inevitable end crept closer. They capped things off with Wasp, and a burning hope that they’ll be back in Montreal soon. Wednesday’s live set proved that the hype wave they’re currently riding is not unfounded. It’s unifying in its genre-bending capabilities, and I can’t wait to see where the rest of this album cycle takes them and where they’ll go next.
Review – Mathieu Perrier
Photos – Steve Gerrard
