Maybe it was something to do with the changing of the seasons, but it became gradually more clear as the day went on that Wednesday’s gig on Tuesday was pretty special.

Following a long and dreary winter, the North Carolina band’s gloriously ramshackle show at the O2 Academy in Leeds was the perfect antidote - one that came following a perspiring day and ended with the crowd bouncing hysterically with faces beaming.

With songs built around singer Karly Hartzman’s intriguing and candid lyrics about everyday life in the American south alongside music and aesthetics that compliment it beautifully, the five-piece proves an understated perfect match.

And after seeing them in Leeds for the second time (this time in a venue with quadruple the capacity of their last visit ) it became clear just how good and essential the band are in a musical landscape seemingly short of humour and raw authenticity.

Wednesday at the O2 Academy Leeds. | Charles Gray

placeholder image — Wednesday at the O2 Academy Leeds. | Charles Gray

Hartzman is the focal point for much of the admiration and, from the moment the gothic-country styled singer skips genially onto the stage to the kitschy beats of Pink And Blue, she proves an effortlessly captivating and multi-layered master of ceremonies.

Bookended by cathartic yelps, the band draw on the best elements of country, grunge, shoegaze, slacker-rock and doom metal during the one-and-a-half hour show, which is excellently opened by support act Bleary Eyed.

Kartzman’s vocals also defy comparison, being at-times deceivingly off-kilter and at others gorgeously soaring as she delivers memorable lines about ‘p***ing off the balcony’, watching Human Centipede (and wishing she hadn’t) and going to school three days out of the week.

Another key component is the lap steel from Xandy Chelmis (who has fans bringing their own signs) which is achingly moving at times (such as on ‘Cody’s Only’ and ‘Chosen To Deserve’) and provides some of the most startling sliding riffs of recent times at others on the likes of the stonking one-a-half-minute ‘Hot Rotten Grass Smell’ from 2023’s Rat Saw God and the wonderful cover of Gary Stewart’s ‘She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinking Doubles)’, a song that was on repeat in my head for days after.

The band were touring in support of their phenomenal sixth album 'Bleeds'. | Charles Gray

As the set draws on Kartzman notes how “chill” the audience is - unsurprising considering how utterly impressive they’ve been up to this point - but an invitation to let loose for “the harder s***” is answered emphatically. Though she is soon helping those taking part in the febrile bouncing reclaim their lost phones, shoes and jackets, the match has been lit.

There’s space for the more sombre ballads from their phenomenal sixth album ‘Bleeds, which predates this significant run of shows, in the form of ‘The Way Love Goes’ and lead single ‘Elderberry Wine’, which sparks one of the biggest singalongs of the night.

The brilliant, bouncing ‘Townies’, with its feverish chorus and tales of dumb sexual proclivity, is an all-time live highlight before Kartzman warns there will be no encore as the final two songs “destroy” her vocal chords.

Wednesday performing at O2 Academy Leeds. Picture: Neil Chapman @ Unholy Racket Music Pics

There’s hardly anywhere worth going after ‘Bull Believer’ though. The eight-minute alt-rock epic is an instant classic even before the final three-minute coda of Hartzman literally bellowing the Mortal Combat-referencing line “finish him”. On record it is unsettlingly sublime and here in person it is totally transformative. And if you add to the mix her pre-song address of Ice Agents back home “taking away the dignity of the people contributing most to society”, and matters around the Epstein files and Palestine, it becomes an unrivalled expression of collective grief and disillusionment that leaves me dumbfounded.

The screaming sensation ‘Wasp’ ends the show in delirious manner, with a pervading a sense that Wednesday will only grow in stature as they and their fellow guitar-wielding contemporaries from across the Atlantic (such as former member MJ Lenderman and Geese) continue realigning the format in new boundaries.

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