Article and Photos by: Ommar Ortuvia
Houston, TX — If we were to summarize what was most prevalent at Wednesday 13’s concert on the night of November 4th, we would include loud music, hard fast riffs, goth & horror themed-lyrics, metal studs, tattoos, and monster face paint. Oh, and lots and lots of nostalgia. This is because for this current tour, the band performed songs exclusively from the eponymous singer’s prior band, Murderdolls, who are often described as “Mötley Crüe meets the Misfits.” They were formed in the early 2000s by Slipknot’s #1 drummer Joey Jordison, after recruiting Wednesday 13’s singer (real name Joseph Poole) from his previous band — Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 (subsequently touring and recording albums from 2002-2011). Wednesday 13 guitarists Roman Surman and Jack Tankersley are also Murderdolls alumni from their second generation. Inside Warehouse Live’s more intimate Studio stage, the horror rockers put on a show full of fun and fright.
After the opening bands finished their set, Wednesday 13 took the stage and prepared themselves while “The World According to Revenge” was played through the venue’s PA. Once the band was ready, they opened with “Chapel of Blood,” following the same order of their second and last recorded album, 2011’s Women and Children Last, a parody of Van Halen’s 1984 album Women and Children First. The red lights provided a fantastic recreation of the song’s gory lyrics, filling the venue with a red wash akin to being covered in blood. The next song was “Death Valley Superstars,” followed by “197666,” and then “Love at First Fright.” This went on for a whopping 19-song setlist that incorporated tracks from the ‘Dolls two studio albums: the aforementioned Women… and 2002’s Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls, a parody of Russ Meyer’s cult classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. At the same time these songs are re-recorded versions of Poole and Jordison’s prior band’s tracks so in essence you are experiencing multiple bands at once.
Poole is an excellent showman, knowing exactly how to keep the crowd engaged with his stage persona by giving them menacing glances, snarls, and abundant finger-pointing to let you know he sees you. Poole was able to keep the energy on high throughout the night, showing no lulls in his dynamism except for when the band would take a break and have Poole chat with the audience, sharing stories about life on the road, Mick Mars bleeding on their album, times they’ve received critical appraise (or outright hate) from fans and people in the music industry, when they appeared on Dawson’s Creek (yes, that really happened), and mentioning Jordison and his death in 2021. To the ones lucky enough to be situated towards the front of the stage, they would have noticed that the bass drum heads paid tribute to Jordison and Ben Graves, the Murderdolls’ original drummer who sadly passed in 2018.
Poole had no rock star pretentions, as he would frequently climb the front retaining wall to get close with the fans, generating high-fives, wild screams, and cell-phone recordings galore. The night ultimately had to end, playing Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” after the encore, followed by “I Love to Say Fuck,” and “Dead in Hollywood.” The closer’s opening staccato riffs were the cue that the last song was here, triggering the audience to let loose with excitement.
Although Halloween was only a few nights ago, one would think the party was still going thanks to all horror-themed allusions everywhere you looked. Overall, this was an insanely entertaining night for great music, with the added bonus of enjoying genuine Murderdolls members replaying the songs that leapt into our hearts like Michael Myers’ knife. Their current tour will continue stateside until early December 2023. Afterwards our Aussie brethren can enjoy the same Wednesday 13-plays-Murderdolls tour for a few dates before heading to Europe to support Cradle of Filth.