There’s no way to do Halloween wrong as long as you keep it spooky but there’s absolutely a right way to do Halloween and that involves spending Halloween with Mr Motherfucker himself: Wednesday 13. All the spooks and spectres were out in Manchester as Wednesday 13 brought together all the ghouls to celebrate The Murderdolls.
First up was South of Salem, their show fit the vibe perfectly with their coffin shaped lighting rigs and costumes. My brain has been thoroughly rotted by horror movies so I thought lead singer Joey Draper came as Chop Top from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 but he was actually Maverick from Top Gun. Apologies for any offence caused.
The band is constantly at 100% energy and the music is completely on brand for this kind of show – all the mid-tempo butt rock dance metal energy was welcomed beautifully by the people under the stairs at the Academy. Picture a Three Days Grace/Breaking Benjamin type band but make it spooky and you’ve got South of Salem.
There’s a surprising amount of solid guitar work on these tracks which is unusual for this type of nu-metal adjacent hard rock. We even had a Hendrix moment where the guitarist (dressed as The Nun) played a ripping guitar solo behind his head, which was arguably the coolest moment of their set.
‘Cold Day In Hell’ has since been added to the playlist and hopefully, it will end up making the rounds on Halloween playlists in years to come. We can finally get a new ‘Dragula’ (no shade but we definitely need a new Halloween metal song).
One of the highlights of the show was checking out all the amazing costumes in the audience, there were Jokers, Art the Clown was roaming around somewhere, I saw Billy from Saw and a pair of Beetlejuices. There was so much creativity on display and everyone was so welcoming and receptive to each other, it was already a magical night and the headliner hadn’t even come on yet.
The whole band came out shortly after, led by Mr Motherfucker himself, Wednesday 13 and I found myself transported back in time to 2008 when everyone looked like a Tim Burton character and all the music was industrial nu-metal. Having no prior exseperience with Wednesday 13 or Murderdolls, I must admit I missed out, I’d describe Wednesday 13 as a mix of the Broadway show version of Beetlejuice and the graverobber from Repo: The Genetic Opera. It’s all incredibly camp and in your face in the best way possible.
This entire set paid tribute to the Murderdolls and the legend that is Joey Jordison. Throughout the set, Wednesday 13 told stories about how the band formed and the various trials and tribulations of being a horror-themed nu-metal band and satisfying a record label without alienating the fanbase. A spoken word tour from Wednesday would be interesting, he’s clearly an engaging storyteller and despite occasionally struggling to hear him, he’s always a blast to listen to.
The MVP of the show is the drummer, his drum sound is simultaneously clicky and powerful. He’s undoubtedly the loudest part of the mix but it’s not so much of a problem considering how important Joey Jordison was to the Murderdolls sound. That punk rock sound feels old school in the best possible way, tracks like ‘197666’ and ‘Summertime Suicide’ have that modern sound but still feel like they’d fit perfectly on the soundtrack of a Russ Meyer film with its rockabilly swagger.
Murderdolls were a highly underrated band in that wave of industrial horror themed nu-metal. Tracks like ‘Cold Dark Place’ had the visceral aggression of Coal Chamber, ‘Love At First Fright’ had that horror aesthetic and blazing guitar work you’d expect from Rob Zombie and ‘Blood Stained Valentine’ had the classic iconic Digitech Whammy which is a staple of nu-metal. There’s so much variety in the set, there’s even a spooky B52s-style track in the form of ‘People Hate Me’.
The set included a heavy cover of Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’ all while Wednesday was adorned in his classic iconic PVC outfit and hat. The man looked like a scene kid Marilyn Manson without any of the problematic implications. It was a serve of the highest order and few people could hope to look anywhere near as good as he did.
The latter part of the show was a bonding experience. The list of things Mancs love is extremely long and Manchester culture is storied and rich but like Wednesday, we love to say “fuck”. Screaming obscenities while dressed like an absolute psycho is a Manchester tradition and it was an honour to raise our middle fingers and celebrate our culture with Wednesday 13 and the memory of Joey Jordison.
Wednesday revealed a brand new album is due to be released in April and hopefully, that means a brand new UK tour with shiny new songs about violent ghosts and swearing or whatever else is swimming around that horrible wonderful brain of his.
Beetlejuice… He’s your problem now, reader. Happy Halloween!
