After dominating year end lists with their excellent 2023 album Rat Saw God, Wednesday have commenced the 2024 leg of their tour, which hit NYC on Thursday night (1/25) for a sold out show at Brooklyn Steel. Last time they played here was back in June at the considerably smaller Music Hall of Williamsburg (they also did an intimate release show and flea market at TV Eye in April), and they shouted out attendees of that one from the stage on Thursday night, as well as other smaller shows they’d played throughout the years. Their upward trajectory, which was gathering steam around the release of 2021’s fantastic Twin Plagues, really took off in 2023 as Rat Saw God became one of the most talked about and anticipated indie rock releases of the year, and their live show makes good on all that anticipation. They had the packed crowd jumping for much of the night, someone stage-dived in a Mannequin Pussy t-shirt, and Karly Hartzman hopped down into the crowd for the band’s cover of Gary Stewart’s honky-tonk staple “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles).”
Along with a lot of Rat Saw God material and some older songs, Wednesday also played two new songs, which sounded great. Karly warned the crowd that there’d be no encore before launching the final song of the set, “Bull Believer,” and mentioned there were a lot of things to scream about right now, with the deaths of Palestinians weighing heavy on the band’s minds. They gave it an impassioned rendition that had the crowd going harder than ever.
Atlanta band Lowertown opened the show, delivering a compelling set with plenty of attitude, and the venue felt totally full by the time Hotline TNT took the stage next. They’re riding high off 2023’s Cartwheel and people were clearly as psyched to see them as Wednesday, who were watching the set from side stage; MJ Lenderman also joined them for a cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ “Quiet,” and Karly for “Had 2 Try.”
See pictures from the night and a few attendee-taken videos below, and pick up our exclusive plum variant of Rat Saw God, limited to 400 copies, in the BV store.
