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Wednesday – Bleeds Tour 2026with Truth Club
Sunday, May 3
Doors: 7 pm : Show: 8 pm
Cat’s Cradle
TICKET LINK: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/94208733/wednesday-bleeds-tour-2026with-truth-club-carrboro-cats-cradle
Can a self-portrait be a collage? Can empathy be autobiographical? What’s the point of living if we’re not trying to understand all the horror and humor that surrounds everything? These are a few of the questions lurking under the bleachers of Wednesday’s new album Bleeds, an intoxicating collection of narrative-heavy Southern rock that—like many of the most arresting passages from the North Carolina band’s highlight reel so far—thoughtfully explores the vivid link between curiosity and confession.
Bleeds is not only the best Wednesday record—it’s also the most Wednesday record, a patchwork-style triumph of literary allusions and outlaw grit, of place-based poetry and hair-raising noise. Karly Hartzman—founder, frontwoman, and primary lyricist—credits Wednesday’s tightened grasp on their own identity to time spent collaborating on previous albums, plus a tour schedule that’s been both rewarding and relentless. “Bleeds is the spiritual successor to Rat Saw God, and I think the quintessential ‘Wednesday Creek Rock’ album,” Hartzman said, articulating satisfaction with the ways her band has sharpened its trademark sound, how they’ve refined the formula that makes them one of the most interesting rock bands of their generation. “This is what Wednesday songs are supposed to sound like,” she said. “We’ve devoted a lot of our lives to figuring this out—and I feel like we did.”
Just like Rat Saw God, one of the defining rock & roll records of the 2020s so far, Bleeds came together at Drop of Sun in Asheville and was produced by Alex Farrar, who’s been recording the band since Twin Plagues. Hartzman again brought demos to the studio, where she and her bandmates—Xandy Chelmis (lap steel, pedal steel), Alan Miller (drums), Ethan Baechtold (bass, piano), and Jake “M.J.” Lenderman (guitar)—worked as a team to bulk-up the compositions with the exact right amounts of country truth-telling, indie-pop hooks, and noisy sludge. More than ever, the precise proportions were steered by the lyricism—not only its tone or subject matter, but also the actual sound of the words, as well as Hartzman’s masterfully subjective approach to detail selection.
Whether she’s purging her fascination with a gruesome true-crime case (“Carolina Murder Suicide”) or recounting why her old landlord Gary got dentures at thirty-three (“Gary’s II”), every image or scene is filtered through Hartzman’s agile, writerly brain. The particulars deemed essential—a wincing dentist, a crooked nail, a Pitbull puppy pissing off a balcony—all contain revelations about Hartzman’s specific obsessions and vulnerabilities, about the fragmented way she processes the world. She confronts this affinity for interpersonal soul-searching on “Townies,” remembering a high-school mischief partner whose sexual adventures triggered nasty gossip: “Off I-40 / crawled into your life begging on my knees / and I get it now / you were sixteen and bored and drunk.” Maybe sometimes the best way to locate truth or pain or dignity within your own life story, Bleeds suggests, is by crawling into someone else’s.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Cat's Cradle, 300 E Main St,Carrboro, North Carolina, United States
Tickets
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