If there was ever a perfect time of the year for a Wednesday 13 show, then the end of October is it, with all the ghostly ghouly things occurring around the city, such as the giant octopus tentacles appearing from House of Fraser. Although the scariest thing about Manchester at the moment is that the Christmas decorations have been out for well over a month already.
Deep in the bowels of the university building, Club Academy was the host for the first of the North Carolina’s 3 night Bloodsick run across the UK and was packed full with a whole cast of living dead. The corpse paint industry of Manchester most definitely enjoyed a boom in business in the run up to tonight’s show.
First up though were Courtesans who are very much one of the bands of 2017 and after seeing their fantastic set on the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage at this years Bloodstock Festival, a band I was excited to see again.
With a relatively short but mesmerising set they win a fair few new fans tonight with Sinead La Bella’s impassioned vocals striking a chord with many. They’re out on a headline tour before the end of the year so we’d urge you to go and see for yourself.
With the stage bathed in deep blood red lighting and smoke the intro music played and Wednesday 13 took the stage to a rapturous welcome.
They are well mixed concoction of KISS and Alice Cooper theatrics, George A Romero aesthetics and White Zombie stomp all mixed up in a cauldron served with a generous helping of Misfits and spat back at a willing audience. Many of who lost their minds from the get go as What The Night Brings and Scream Baby Scream got everybody’s blood bouncing, and as the beat of Frankenstein’s Drag Queens From Planet 13’s RAMBO filled the room to cheers the excitement went up yet another notch.
Horror movie soundbites filled the spaces between songs whilst costume changes were made (almost too regularly) and the whole atmosphere in the Academy was electric – if Wednesday 13 fans are anything they are loyal, they know every word to every song and are fully up for the whole experience.
The sheer variety of their back catalogue meant we were given a quite schizophrenic romp through various styles, all of which though are underpinned with Wednesday’s trade mark anthemic lyrics and B-movie horror schtick. Bloodline 666 and I Want You… Dead were highlights in a set packed with them.
A self confessed horror movie nerd, Wednesday easily transferred this love to the stage through his performance and delivery and as the main set closed with Condolences from the 2017 album of the same name nobody was going to leave disappointed even if the show had ended there and then.
The encore though meant there were no nasty tricks and we were treated to Prey For Me, an awesome I Love To Say Fuck which was brilliantly punctuated with the use of a scene stealing umbrella giving the crowd the finger when it opened and a grand finale in the form of Bad Things.
The show was a spooktacular masterpiece and although this time of year was perfect for the whole thing we hope it’s not too long before they come back. Evil never sounded so good.