Wednesday Announce Debut New Zealand Shows

North Carolina fuzz-guitar collective Wednesday have announced their debut Aotearoa headline dates, gracing local stages at Pōneke's Meow and Tāmaki Makaurau's Whammy Bar this summer. Incredibly prolific since launching their 2018 debut album Yep, Definitely, the US quintet helmed by songwriter / guitarist Karly Hartzman are touring down under following the recent release of their fifth studio long player Rat Saw God via Dead Oceans — which prompted Pitchfork to gush "Their outstanding new album is why they’re one of the best indie rock bands around". Threading emotionally disarming autobiographic narratives through passages of stormy shoegaze distortion, frazzled grunge riffage and lilting alt-country, the ten songs on Rat Saw God illustrate everyday epics drawn from the suburban backwaters of the US south. Possessors of an impressively un-Googleable band name, don't miss Hartzman, guitarist MJ Lenderman, bassist Margo Shultz, drummer Alan Miller, and lap / pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis letting rip at the dates following —brought to you by Banished Music and Strange News Touring...

Wednesday

Saturday 17th February - Meow, Wellington*
Thursday 22nd February - Whammy, Auckland

Tickets from Banished Music
*Tickets from Moshtix

Watch the clip for 'Chosen to Deserve' from Wednesday's new album Rat Saw God...

Press release:

Banished Music and Strange News Touring are elated to announce two New Zealand shows from one of the most feverishly celebrated indie bands in the world right now - North Carolina’s own Wednesday.

Wednesday is fronted by singer and guitarist Karly Hartzman who, alongside guitarist MJ Lenderman (a rising songwriting star in his own right), bassist Margo Shultz, drummer Alan Miller, and lap/pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis, will bring their raucous and rousing live set to fill these intimate venues with a truly unique wall of noise.

The band are touring in support of their 2023 album Rat Saw God, which garnered unanimous praise from across the board with its tales of life in suburban America, both winning hearts and breaking them in equal measure. Wednesday’s sound may have echoes of the best parts of the 90s, but truly is a musical blend all their own, with their wild mash-up of shoegaze, alt-country, emo, and grunge.

With songs that tell stories of stomach pumping, nostalgic small-town bike rides, drugs, and Mortal Kombat, the band’s fifth album is, as perfectly put by NPR, “distinctly, youthfully, chaotically American”, while Uncut gifted it a near perfect score and praised its ability to match horror with humour.

Wednesday’s live shows are reported to be distorted, dangerous, and fearsome affairs, with squalls of fuzzed out pedal steel melding with duelling guitars, pummelling bass, and cacophonous drums, all cut through like a knife by Karly Hartzman’s unmistakable vocal.

We are in for an incredible treat this coming February, and by the sounds of it, a pair of the wildest shows this country will have seen in quite some time.