It’s heading for Halloween which pretty much means we’re due a visit from the Duke of Spook, in much the same way as Easter heralds the madcap antics of Tragedy. This year sees Mr Wednesday upgraded from Slay to the QMU in Glasgow due to a huge number of ticket sales… and I know at least one of them was due to the openers.
South of Salem were part of the package the last time Wednesday 13 hit town, and it’s always a pleasure to see them. We caught up with then at Bloodstock this year where they helped open the festival on the Thursday, and it’s obvious that they are a band going from strength to strength.
Tonight’s 30-minute set kicked off a couple of minutes early, which was particularly annoying as the doors didn’t seem to open until after the advertised time (according to a friend who was in the street-long line from before 7pm), and the queue was not quick to move inside. As a result we missed the first two songs, which is a shame as the guys gave as good a condensed performance as I’ve ever seen from them.
They know how to fill the stage, and put on a good show. It’s always a good sign for a support band when the audience are engaged, and South of Salem had a very obvious hundred or so SOS’ers crowded up against the barrier. One fan performed dual vocals with frontman Joey, though this wasn’t as impressive as the very young gent at SOS Fest last year who sat on his dad’s shoulders and belted out all the words!
As they stated a couple of times during their set, they were there to warm the crowd up and I can very much state that they managed this. Job done.
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The last time Wednesday 13 visited these shores, he was playing his solo material with a little sidestep into Murderdolls material with a single song. This time the band’s two albums were first and foremost, along with a handful of pauses where Wednesday told some trivia-heavy stories of Murderdolls history. More on those shortly.
The set was great. The Murderdolls may only have been a brief flash (well, two flashes) before Joey decided that maybe Slipknot may be being a bit more successful, but what a flash it was. While the first album was mainly filled with what were effectively covers of songs by Wednesday’s first band Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13, Murderdolls definitely made them more well known. And they’re great songs. “197666”, “Love At First Fright”, “Graverobbing USA”… every one a (rotting) tongue in cheek classic. Add in the original Murderdolls material such as “Slit My Wrist”, “Pieces of You” and the brilliant, soaring “Nowhere” and there’s no way this show was going to be anything other than ninety minutes of schlock horror fun.
The crowd bounced, raised fingers (horns and middle), shouted “fuck” an awful lot and smiled their way through a raucous show of genuinely fun heavy metal. There were no frills, other than a familiar umbrella during the encore, but the strength of Murderdolls was always the songs and charismatic showmanship. You don’t need novelties when you have tracks like “People Hate Me” and the best cover of “White Wedding” ever recorded to throw at the audience.
However, what put the scabby icing on the worm-filled cake were those aforementioned history lessons. Wednesday spoke fondly of Joey, Ben Graves, and a lady that most of you won’t have heard of but who was hugely important to me, Moshville Times and a huge number of people in the music industry: Michelle Kerr. Michelle was Murderdolls’ and Wednesday’s PR, and she was a fucking legend. It was wonderful to hear her included in one of his stories (relating to Kerrang being a bit shit). I was really pleased that the audience weren’t fidgety at all during these little breaks, lapping up every word and enjoying hearing a little more about this classic band.
While arguably we only had one half of the core/permanent Murderdolls performing (RIP Joey – still missed), the show wasn’t lacking – and credit to DevilDriver’s Davier Pérez for filling in on the drums. Mike Dupke was at home looking after his son, who we very much wish all the best to.
Overall, the best show I’ve seen Wednesday put on since the last time I saw the actual Murderdolls at the ABC, back in 2011!
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