The Joiners, Southampton
Wednesday 13 “The Monsters of the Universe: come out and plague. UK Invasion Tour”
Beware, boys and girls! UK Zombie Invasion spreads as the South of England is destroyed by the Monsters of the Universe who came out to “plague”. On Sunday 8th quite an ordinary venue “The Joiners” have been pillaged and violated by two quite an extraordinary bands.
The main act was “Wednesday 13”, but I’ll speak later of them as the support band has been no less impressive. Actually, I have to admit, I am a sucker for the support bands. It’s always exciting to see fresh blood on stage giving it all as they haven’t made it quite yet, so generally they try much harder.
So, warming the crowd up were the Finnish “Snow White’s Poison Kiss” from a cosy town of Joensuu. Wonder how such a powerful post-hardcore band could come out from such a quite town with hasteless life? As their frontman commented in one of their interviews: “Finland is home to many dark and heavy bands, but when we were starting up in 2006, we wanted to create something different. There were almost none known post-hardcore bands from Finland that time”. Well, here you go. I would not call them post-hardcore 100% as I think they are a mix of the latter and some fun zombie party stuff, that kind of thing what zombies would listen to on a Friday night.
SWPK jumped straight to it with the dynamic “Darling this movie was filmed in Horrorwood on the thirteenth”. They presented themselves confidently on stage and it seemed they’ve played for a good few years as all the musical bits and pieces were coming together. By the third track “Halloween means death” the crowd was completely taken in by SWPS’s catchy lyrics chanting “Trick or treat, motherfuckers”, although my personal favorite is “Will you meet me in the graveyard”.
Here are a few interesting facts about the band I have found out whilst chatting to their British born but now residing in Finland frontman Allan “Jeremy 13” Cotterill. The latest album the band released was “Dr. Gruesome And The Gruesome Gory Horror Show “, so at the moment they are working hard on a new one whilst carrying on touring for the rest of 2015. They were headlining in London’s “The Garage” on 9th. If you have never heard of them before, Jeremy recommends to start from listening to their “The Halloween means death” as the band feels it represents them the best and all what their music stands for. Oh, and one more quite random fact: here is a little piece of juicy gossip, their drummer Niko Hyttinenwere is married to a keyboard player from Lordi.
Well, here’s to the legendary Wednesday 13. All hail to the Master as Wednesday13 himself walks onto the stage. I find if very confusing that the band and the frontman Joseph Poole are called the same. Shall we just call the frontman “The Master” as it suits him so well?
The band took their part of the show off with a lengthy intro which spilled over to the track from their new album “Monsters of the Universe: Come Out and Plague” – “Keep watching the? skies”. This is their first concept album, the album that is united by the same unified idea. And in this case the idea is their own words “It’s a sci-fi, horror story that will be the most unique Wednesday 13 album to date”.
But the band not only promoted their latest album, but they have treated their fans with playing good old favorites that everyone wanted to hear too, including “Skeletons”, “Bad things” and “I walked with a zombie”. I remember the latter one especially as I’ve never jumped so high. Later I’ve admitted to the guys when chatting to them how unprofessional I was: I was having so much fun that I have almost forgotten to take notes.
“Come out and plague” was a huge success with the crowd when Wed13 came out on stage dressed like a raging raven. I have to admit, their costumes were astonishing, especially Joseph’s.
Through the night the attire hanged to the one of a devil. See pictures below. The image was so powerful that enchanted crowd was under some kind of spell and responded to every Master’s command as he was singing “I love watching you die”. For me it’s their the most romantic tune to date.
I quite like the fact that they mention “1984” in on of their tracks “Bombs, Guns, Gods -This is a War “. It shows their intelligence and that they are aware that Orwellian predictions are on their way to materialize. Very much in sync with my own opinion.
After an erratic “Scream Baby Scream” the band left but soon came back to play a few more tunes encore including everyone’s favorite and mentioned before “I walked with a zombie” and “Bad things”. I love “Bad things”, it’s such a stress relief, you can just imagine whoever annoys you and sing along to it decapitating them in your head. I personally do not have such a person, but this track is useful to keep on your playlist just for a rainy day. It’s a bit like Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff”.
The show rounds up with a … surprise, surprise …with a tune that stands for their whole latest album “Monsters of the Universe”. It not only a well made quality tune but also a portrayal of their recent work.
2015 has only started not so long ago, however has been already an eventful year for Wednesday 13. In January they have released their latest album that gave the title to their tour “ Monsters of the Universe: Come Out and Plague”. Soon after that they hopped on on the “UK Invasion” tour train.
At the moment guys are not planning to tour Europe but they have a very sweet treat up their sleeve for the UK fans this year. They loved it so much over here that they will be back to our beautiful land for Halloween.
It all made me think of what if “Dimmu Borgir” had a fun house party? You can’t be all so doom and gloom all the time, gotta have a bit of fun. I guess it would look just like the massacre Wednesday 13 have staged in front of us. Amusing enough to be merry, diabolical enough to be dark.
It’s all performance on stage, but after all, in real life band members of Wednesday 13 are the humblest nicest guys I have ever met, both charming and polite.
I strongly advise this band for the lovers of “Deathstars”, “Lord of the Lost”, “Misfits” even … and of course “Murderdolls”.
“Wednesday 13” Set List
Keep watching the skies
Astro Psycho – Galactic Blood-Drive
I want you dead
Look what the bats dragged in
Get your grave on
Serpent society
Skeletons
Come Out and Plague
House by the cemetery
Planet Eater: Interstellar 187
I Love Watching You Die
Hail Ming
Bombs, Guns, Gods – This is a War
Scream baby scream
– encore-
Scary song
I walked with a zombie
Bad things
Monsters of the Universe
“Snow White’s Poison Bite” Set List
Darling, this movie was filmed in Horrorwood on the thirteenth
Down in the morgue
Halloween means death
Will you meet me in the graveyard
Serial killer girl
Count Dracula kid
Let’s get dead with the living dead
Links
https://www.facebook.com/officialwednesday13
https://twitter.com/officialwed13
http://www.youtube.com/user/WedinHollywood
https://www.facebook.com/swpbband
https://www.twitter.com/swpbband
http://www.youtube.com/snowwhitespoisonbite
Words by Veronica Kavaliova.
