On Friday, March 27, alt-country band Wednesday posted on Instagram about their addition to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The North Carolina-based quintet joined a new installment titled “American Currents: State of the Music.” Listen to any of the band’s four studio albums and their inclusion in hallowed halls alongside the likes of Loretta Lynn and Woody Guthrie makes sense. Albeit in a darker tone than their predecessors, Wednesday writes songs about living in the American South. From small town interactions to its nature of the sprawling woods and waterways. Three days after Wednesday shared their distinct honor, lead singer and guitar player Karly Hartzman stood on stage at The King of Clubs, Columbus’ rock and metal venue.
“This place is hard as fuck,” Hartzman told the crowd, fondly. For the uninitiated, The King of Clubs is the largest venue outside of the PromoWest family of downtown spots. Hartzman did not directly comment on the pothole riddled parking lot, loose dogs running around the nearby multicolored apartment complex or mostly abandoned strip of buildings in the area where route 161 meets the 71 interstate, but she kind of did. The King of Clubs is a spot for 80s bands like Quiet Riot and Lynchmob to bands whose name cannot be read due to metal font that looks more like tangled tree branches that is only for metal fans to interpret.
What Hartzman did comment on was the overall aesthetic of the building. Right away, the angry skeleton logo that sits atop the structure lets you know that they are not messing around. If that doesn’t work, look at the dragon light fixtures outside the entrance or watch the rotating powerpoint slideshow of upcoming shows and in-building advertisements. The red backlit skeleton logo above the bar, adorned directly above a Jäegermeister branded guitar.
The truth is, Wednesday belongs in both spaces. To the band mostly from Asheville, North Carolina, genre is fluid. It is a great way to separate out vinyl at a store or for a record label to pinpoint their key demographics, but not for the kind of music that Wednesday brings to the venues it sells out across the country.
In the run up to their 2025 LP release “Bleeds,” Hartzman shared many times how their style is ever-changing. From their first Dead Oceans release “I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone” in 2020 that sounded almost atmospheric to gazey at times to the 2023 “Rat Saw God” release that featured guitar riffs covered with a dark veil that stretched across each track, “Bleeds” put Wednesday in new company.
On Monday, Wednesday played Columbus with support from Florida-based hardcore punk band Gouge Away. It is a second run of the Bleeds Tour after the headliners played with indie band Daffo, the other side of the spectrum from Gouge Away. Even so, each show lineup worked.
Gouge Away looked at home at The King of Clubs. Lead singer Christina Michelle uses each song as an opportunity to scream the band’s lyrics. Between songs, Michelle’s juxtaposition gives new listeners a false sense of “everything will be ok,” with her lighthearted demeanor and genuine joy on stage. Then Gouge Away goes into “Figurine,” their newest single that is some of the hardest work done from the group that switches from Michelle yelling the “Angel figurine was staged” hook, followed by light singing about going to the emergency room.
Being an opener is tough, and the lone request for a circle pit from Michelle was mostly ignored from the crowd that skewed on the younger side. A small pit did form, a far cry from what usually occupies the building’s floor, but the crowd seemingly saved their energy for Wednesday.
Over 17 songs, Hartzman sang through tracks from all four of the band’s full releases, with a heavy focus on “Bleeds.” After some minor technical difficulties early in the set, Wednesday’s mix of genre-bending tracks had the crowd singing along, giving Hartzman handmade clothes and the removal of one fan’s shirt, which Hartzman promptly responded with a “put your shirt back on” command.
What differs between the recorded tracks and live version of the band is the intensity in which Hartzman adds to the songs. The lead singer adds screams where there are none in their recordings, matching Gouge Away’s intensity for small pockets of tracks.
Then there is the accompanying music to her sometimes haunting tone and lyrics. Xandy Chelmis plays the pedal steel and lap steel interchangeably, sometimes tilting the pedal steel over during the band’s breakdowns. Alan Miller is the only other original member of the band, alongside Hartzman, on drums. True to rock and roll venue ideals, Miller played on what Hartzman called the largest drum platform of the drummer’s life. The riser did stand roughly three feet off the ground, which prompted Miller to throw his hand over his eyes to see his entire kingdom. Ethan Baechtold and Jake “Spyder” Pugh rounded out the group, with the latter filling in for former touring guitarist Jake Lenderman, who still wrote and recorded on “Bleeds” and then went on the road with his own band MJ Lenderman.
From the back and forth between Hartzman and the crowd, to a story about Chelmis inadvertently flipping Hartzman the day before in a kayak, Wednesday is at home on stage. There is a comfort to listening to the songs that stretch from harmony to chaos, sometimes within the same track.
Back in 2023, Wednesday played a sold out Ace of Cups. During the set, a couple fans crowdsurfed, which made Hartzman laugh. Listen to “Rat Saw God,” which was their new release at the time, and you can hear why it is so funny. It has been a long three years though, and now a mosh pit is commonplace at Wednesday shows. It is not only common, but forewarned.
Hartzman let the crowd know that the last four songs were all pit heavy. Despite the muggy atmosphere in the building, even commented on by the band, the uninterested in adding to the heat moved out of the center of the floor while the ones looking to crash into someone filled the space. After “Elderberry Wine,” a true sing-a-long style track that highlights the beauty of Hartzman’s voice, swapped out for a quartet of harder songs.
Bitter Everyday and Townies, from “Bleeds,” were the warm-ups. The track everyone waits for came next, “Bull Believer” from “Rat Saw God”. At nearly nine minutes long, “Bull Believer” ends with a blood curdling scream that runs the final 30 seconds of the song. Before singing it, Hartzman sets up the track and the final two songs of the show. After saying that she won’t be able to sing after the songs, she shared her motivation for the screaming that night.
There is a lot to scream about and Hartzman’s focus was on ICE raids, unnecessary wars and the overall presence of the United States government. That elicited a huge response from the crowd through clapping and screams of approval. Hartzman questioned anyone who was there and did not agree with her feelings, setting a hardline for what Wednesday is about.
Those screams had most of the general admission crowd moving. While it is a slower, building, track, the final song of the night gave the release.
“Wasp” is not “Bull Believer.” Coming in at 1:29, it is the closest Wednesday has become to a hardcore band themselves, something that no one should rule out in their future. In all of the 16 songs before it, which included a cover of Gary Stewart’s “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinking Doubles),” Hartzman played guitar. For “Wasp,” Hartzman swaps it out for an entire track of screaming, matching the intensity of Gouge Away and ending the night with the band’s fastest song that gave everyone a reason to move.
