Wednesday bring ‘Bleeds’ to O2 Academy Leeds
The band’s UK tour experienced venue upgrades across several shows.
Photo: Graham Tolbert
Wednesday walked onto the stage in Leeds and unleashed absolute holy hell. Anyone expecting a taste of country-tinged rock was hit with an avalanche of screeching guitars and blistering, screamed vocals right from the get-go. Exhibiting the duality of their idols, Drive-By Truckers, Wednesday are capable of playing it straight when they want, but much more often prefer to go for broke and lean into the power and noise of being a live performing rock band.
Wednesday do sound great when they play it straight too, though, with beautiful country songs like That’s The Way Love Goes and crowd pleaser Elderberry Wine offering brief respites from the chaos. What really sets Wednesday apart from their contemporaries is how they combine those southern country-tinged influences with brash and heavy grunge rock. This was best exemplified by their rousing and ferocious cover of Gary Stewart’s country classic She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinking Doubles). It’s not often that bands can offer something new to country music but, in 2026, Wednesday are leading the way in reigniting the genre in fresh and exciting ways.
All of this was even more impressive considering that the band had to contend with an awkward venue change for this show. Originally slated to take place at the wonderful Irish Centre, the gig was upgraded to the O2 Academy a few months back. Whilst this certainly meant more people got to see the show, which is surely only a good thing, it did lead to several problems. The O2’s narrow floorspace and poor sound seemed to be holding back a bit of the audience’s enthusiasm at first. As soon as Hartzman invited moshers to the front, the entire place erupted into a cacophony of noise and joy that offered up the perfect mirror to what was being unleashed on the stage.
Towards the end of the set, Hartzman confessed that there would be no encore because she was going to “blow her voice out on the last few songs”. To be honest, with the way she was screaming as if her life depended on it, it was an absolute miracle that she didn’t destroy her voice at the very start of the show with Reality TV Argument Bleeds. However, she was right. She was really going for it this time. The show ended with a rendition of Wasp that sounded as if it had been beamed in straight from 1980’s DC Hardcore. It was a riot.
All of this put to bed any doubts anyone could have about how the band would sound without their signature lead guitarist, MJ Lenderman. The guitarist, who left to continue his widely successful solo ventures, was more than ably replaced by new guitarist Spider. The night was a rousing testament to where Wednesday are at the moment, with a set that leaned heavily on the last two records, Bleeds and Rat Saw God. These are the songs people came here to see, and it was these newer songs that consistently got the most enthusiastic reception. Tuesday night certainly proved that Wednesday are no longer the next big thing. They are here, and they are at the absolute peak of their powers.
