I went to see Wednesday 13 in London for the second time this year for their Halloween gig. The last time was at the Underworld in Camden for an acoustic set, so I was excited to see them play a “plugged” show!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out their opening band was Evil Scarecrow, a band I’d wanted to see at Camden Rocks Festival this year but didn’t get the chance to. I loved this band! Melodic rock with belting lyrics about giant crabs, robots, monsters and hurricane tornado hybrids, they put on an awesome, thumping show and I’m really happy I got to see them!

By now I was exploding with excitement but when Wednesday 13 finally stormed onto the stage I thought the adrenaline would kill me, it was SO unreal! They opened the show with Keep Watching the Skies, and suddenly the whole venue became this crazy, dramatic, vampy, gothic rock disco! The bass was thumping in my chest and people were jumping, and Wednesday was wearing this black face makeup all over and his hair was whipping about his face, and he sounded so damn amazing. His voice is so unique that it is truly unmistakable.  Kyle and Jack were coated in this super white death makeup and looked so cool, and Roman was looking fresh with his typical half buzzcut slash long swishy hair, and black and white skeleton makeup. Roman is totes my fave!

It was at this point that I had to grudgingly admit to myself that this was ten times better than an acoustic show. Sure, the acoustic show was very intimate and relaxed, and it was at the Underworld, which owns a huge chunk of my heart, but this just blew your mind and there was no beating it!

Wednesday kept putting on masks and headdresses after the first song and changing them as the show progressed, which made it even more special and Halloweeny. At one point he was Satan and some kind of witch thing. They covered a nice variety of old and new songs from their vast setlist, which is just what I was hoping for, I know there was one show on this tour that only covered their Fang Bang alum, but I specifically wanted a nice, scary cocktail, and the energy of the show didn’t really slow down at all during the whole set!

One of the highlights for me was when they played Serpent Society, it had such a spooky drama injection, especially with all the foggy dry ice that it just gave you happy shivers throughout. The Curse Of Me was the only part of the show when the mood shifted slightly, it’s such a sad, moody song, but it still maintained the energetic pace of the evening even if some of us had tears in our eyes. Not me obvs (wipes eyes).

And by the end, as if the show couldn’t get any crazier or bouncier, they played I Walked With A Zombie, and the whole crowd seemed to simultaneously combust. Of course they had to play this song, it just wouldn’t be on if they didn’t. And to make a great evening perfect, they included Bad Things in the three song encore! I was so flipping happy! This song and I go waaaaay back to when I first got into Wednesday 13. It’s a track I always played when I’m super pissed off, and it’s the best ever way to vent your feelings! And so I sang along to every single rather murderous lyric and jumped and fist pumped with the best of them!

After the show I got a hug from Roman (best-hug-EVER) who also signed the photo I brought with me. Jack was super kind and friendly and nice to talk to and I got a photo with him. Kyle is a great big teddy bear and he was smoking an eCigarette when I approached him, and he smiled massively and he also posed for a photo with me. Wednesday himself didn’t come out of his tour bus, but it’s cool, I understand his artisty introvertedness and I sympathise, and I anyway, I was lucky enough to meet him the last time.

Damn unforgettable night and the best freaking Halloween ever! It was my second Wednesday 13 gig and I’m pretty sure there will be many more!

Setlist:

• Keep Watching The Skies
• Put Your Death Mask On
• I Want You… Dead
• The Ghost Of Vincent Price
• Scary Song
• Scream Baby Scream
• Serpent Society
• Skeletons
• Dixie Dead
• Come Out And Plague
• Curse Of Me
• Hail Ming
• I Walked With A Zombie

Encore:

• I Love To Say Fuck
• Bad Things
• Monsters Of The Universe