Wednesday 13 – The Bowery District, Reading – 6th March 2015

Tonight’s gig kicked off with support act Snow White’s Poison Bite.  Even before they start to play, they seem like an obvious choice to support Wednesday 13 as they take to the stage with the faces painted as skulls, so they fit the night’s horror theme.  Once they start to play it gets even more obvious why they’re on the bill – they’re very good, and are a good fit musically.  There are plenty of fans down at the front for their set and they go down very well with the crowd, and by the time their set ends, they’ve done a great job of warming the crowd up for Wednesday 13.

Wednesday 13 kicks off with “Keep watching the skies”, from his latest album (Monsters of the universe – come out and plague), and is clearly starting as he means to go on, and indeed this is just the fisrt of seven songs from the new album to be played tonight.  By this time the front part of the venue is packed with fans – so packed in fact that the security guys struggled to get through to their positions at the front on either side of the stage.

While there are a few theatrical bits – his use of a spotlight to shine on the crowd, or his use of a toy gun, his set is primarily focussed on the music, and with few breaks to talk to the crowd, he focusses on delivering one hell of a good set.  The time seems to fly past tonight (always the sign of a good gig), and all too soon it’s time for the final song – “Scream baby scream” where he makes sure he gets the crowd screaming along.

After a short break he’s back on stage for a four song encore, with “I walked with a zombie” being a clear favourite for the crowd who start a decent sized mosh pit for this song.  Eventually though it’s time to end the night, and he finishes with “Monsters of the universe” – ending how he started the night – with a song from the latest album.

A couple of surprise omissions from the setlist were “I love to say fuck” and “Rambo” – two songs I never expected to see him drop from the set, but that’s exactly what he has done, and even more of a surprise was the lack of any fans calling for them or being disappointed.  That tells you everything you need to know really – his set is strong enough that he can afford to drop old classics in favour of new material.

Wednesday 13 is a performer who really deserves to be playing much bigger venues alongside other horror-themed acts like Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper. If you haven’t listened to Wednesday 13 I definitely recommend that you check him out.

Setlist:

Death Arise (intro)
Keep Watching The Skies
Astro Psycho – Galactic Blood-Drive
I Want You… Dead
Look What The Bats Dragged In
Get Your Grave On
Serpent Society
Skeletons
Come Out And Plague
House By The Cemetery
Planet Eater: Interstellar 187
I Love Watching You Die
Hail Ming
Bombs, Guns, Gods – This Is A War
Scream Baby Scream

Encore:
Scary Song
I Walked With A Zombie
Bad Things
Monsters Of The Universe

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About Ant May

I spend half my life at gigs or festivals and the other half writing the reviews and editing photos, and somehow find time for a full time job too. Who needs sleep - I've got coffee.