Wednesday 13 the more I see this guy live, the more I rave about him. Live he never misses; on record he is super consistent and has this incredible way to add depth to what he does sonically. “Mid Death Crisis” is a shoe in for my Top 10 albums of this years. With every album comes a revamped live setlist, some songs cut, some added, some to become setlist staples, so I was interested to see how heavily the set would lean itself to “Mid Death Crisis”.
The ghoul of cool delivered yet another outstanding show tonight. To be honest I don’t think I have seen a Wednesday 13 show that has left me in anything other than a state of exhaustion, energised elation that has you ready to take on the world. That is the power of music, connecting with your soul.
To my surprise this set takes in three songs from “Mid Death Crisis”, six from “Transylvania 90210”, two Murderdolls songs and two from the Frankenstein Drag Queens. All in all, a great retrospective of his career. All thirteen songs (and I’m sure there is no coincidence there) are bona fide fun guaranteed. The biggest hits and fan favourites just making this one hell of a great time.
Tonight’s set had everything you could want from a Wednesday 13 show, the set full of fist in the air anthems old and new. While it wasn’t a headline set in terms of the stage, there wasn’t a drum riser or over the top production, however the band understood their assignment. It was all taken in the bands stride; having said that they were given a full seventy-minute set. Their assignment was to whip Northcote Theatre into a frenzy and that is exactly what they did.
Aside from being one of this generations most entertaining frontmen Wednesday 13 these songs are just so much fun. The band is perfect all showmen, all entertainers, they deliver hard and here lies the beauty of experiencing a Wednesday 13 show. It pulls you in and participation is automatic and expected whether you like it or not you sing, chant, throw your fist and the horns high in the air. Wednesday 13 is a ringmaster, a magician with his audience when on stage. The band are on fire and the new addition of Ash on guitar along with Jack is just a great pairing, these two play of each other so well. Seeing and hearing Mike back behind the drums just drives these songs the way that they need to be. The formidable figure of Troy Doebber on bass is always a blast. The whole visual of this band is exceptional; nothing is dialled in whether it’s performance or presentation. There is a chemistry and completion of a vision of Wednesday 13’s influences and his love of horror and classic heavy rock n roll that has left an indelible stamp on how he and his band deliver a show.
When you are in the thick of an audience that is this loud singing every word to every song, it’s hard to take in just how it must feel to be on the receiving end back on stage. Hearing ‘In Misery’, ‘Rotting Away’ and ‘When The Devil Commands’ alongside the classics in this set you truly do know that this brand of rock n roll is most definitely very much alive and well.
There seemed to be a little less between song banter tonight, there was more command and impact in the words that address the audience tonight, for me that was perfect. It was relentless fun from start to finish.
It is so rare when an artist pushes their limits with each tour. Every time I have left a Wednesday 13 show I wanted to just go and do it again, it’s your favourite ride at the carnival. Every time I have seen Wednesday 13 live they simply get better, tighter, slicker and sicker in all the right ways.
To pick a favourite moment or song from the show is impossible to pinpoint, however the black and red satin Dracula cape that Wednesday wore for the first song was a brilliant touch and so effective. ‘Bad Things’ is one of my all-time favourite songs so I guess if I had to pick two musical moments it would have to have been ‘Nowhere’ and ‘Bad Things’. The show closer of ‘I love to say F*CK’ is just so much fun, again it’s like picking the impossible. The whole show was a highlight and one you must see, feel and experience to understand.
This was my Halloween, this was my night of the spooky and supernatural and God damn it, I had the best time.
WEDNESDAY 13 GALLERY
Setlist : Look What The Bats Dragged In, Rotting Away, I Want You … Dead, The Ghost Of Vincent Price, When The Devil Commands, Summertime Suicide, 197666, In Misery, Haunt Me, Nowhere, I Walked With A Zombie, Bad Things, I Love To Say F*CK.
Kim Dracula …. Now where do I start with this review. I came away from Dracula’s set mentally overwhelmed. It was like nothing I had seen or heard before live. There are so many different music styles thrown into a blender that flawlessly come out as a collection of songs. Full of experimentation and bending genres together to make this show what it is. It’s chaotic, frantic, delicate and aggressive all at the same time. It’s a big beautiful manic mess that the crowd at Northcote Theatre simply lapped up.
Mind you it was interesting to see the crowd shift between the two bands, some had come only for Wednesday 13, others only for Kim Dracula. The majority stayed for the whole show, but the shift from front to back for people’s main attraction certainly changed.
The chaotic nature of this show made it hard as an outsider to find a groove to follow, yet the fans there did that with such ease, at times it seemed like some of the crowd were in a trance and just felt the music interpretive dancing away as these songs took us on a rollercoaster ride. It was nothing short of a bi-polar journey through musical history conducted by a musical madman with a vision for chaos. The band behind Dracula are simply superb, elite musicians who can clearly play anything.
There were moments and passages that stuck with you, but I didn’t leave with a chorus or a melody stuck in my head from tonight’s set. I do recall finding myself smiling as Dracula went from style to style though.
Visually it was smoke heavy, saturated lighting that has manic moment and contrasts of intense lighting. There was just about as much mayhem there as there was in the music
I’m not sure if I came out of tonight’s show, happy or lobotomised, but I do know it’s a show that needs to be experienced. Wednesday 13 were the feel-good rock n roll horror show, and Kim Dracula was the seedy side alley freak show that had you oohing and ahhing. As entertaining as Kim Dracula’s set was, I’m sure I’m missing something, what it is I don’t know, but rest assured I will keep looking.
KIM DRACULA GALLERY
Setlist – Land Of The Sun, My Confession, Romance, Last Bad Note. 1-800-Close-UR-Eyes, Bond-Drown, Undercover, Kitty Kitty, Industry Secrets, Even Flow, reunion & Reintegration, Are You?, Divine, Paparazzi-70 Thorns-Jazz, Luck Is a Fine Thing-Say Please, Careless-Rose-Make Me Famous, In Three’s, Killdozer.
With thanks to Maric Media for the access
All image credits Shot by Slaidins Photography
