Review by Hugh Spence for MPM
It’s a damp cold night in Belfast and nearly halloween, the perfect time for tonight’s gig of horror rockers. Originally billed to be in the Limelight 2 but thanks to huge demand it was bumped up to Limelight 1.
Kicking off tonight’s festivities is Bournemouth rockers South of Salam, the venue is pretty full for a 7pm start and South of Salam make full of this by getting the crowd going straight away with Let Us Prey from 2020’s The Sinner Takes It All album before going straight into Jet Black Eyes from their most recent album Death of the Party.
With the crowd singing and chanting along they are off to a great start, as Death of the Party is their most recent album we get a lot of tracks from it, Hellbound Heart, Static, Vultures, Death of the Party before vocalist Joey Draper, who was recently shortlisted for HRH’s Frontman of the Year award, takes out a chequered flag for the ever catchy Left for Dead before finishing off tonights 45 minute set of hard rocking with Cold Day in Hell, which the crowd gladly sing along to, overall a great warm up for Wednesday 13 and leaves the crowd wanting more.
After a quick 30 minute change over its time for Wednesday 13, who will be celebrating his time with Murderdolls as it’s mainly a Murderdoll set tonight and the venue is considerably fuller as the crowd anticipates the man himself. Opening with Chapel of Blood from 2010’s Women and Children Last, the crowd are instantly enthralled in the bands presence, continuing from the same album is Death Valley Superstars before the classic 197666, three bangers in a row and the crowd are loving it.
Wednesday 13 is a charismatic and funny guy who knows how to tell a story, he tells us how Murderdolls first formed, a simple phone call from the late great Joey Jordanson to ask Wednesday to start the band with him and a few days in Iowa turned him from the bassist to the vocalist of the band and thus Murderdolls were born, sticking with the early days of Murderdolls the launch into Slit My Wrists from the first album Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls, an early 2000’s classic, the crowd are all singing along to the catchy song and Wednesday has them eating out of the palm of his hand before heading straight into the even catchier Love at First Fright, the perfect halloween love song and then into Motherfucker, I Don’t Care.
They then take another short break while Wednesday 13 regails us with more tales of the past and this time is about how the 2nd Murderdolls album came about, 8 years after their debut and how the critics hated it but the fans loved it, so it was the perfect segway to the next bundle of songs from said album, My Dark Place, Blood Stained Valentine and Pieces of You before heading back to more Beyong the Valley of the Murderdolls classics with the very punkish Graverobbing USA and then the incredibly popular Die my Bride which has every rockers fist in the air before finishing off the bundle with the loveable Summertime Suicide, throughout the entire set Wednesday 13 is very entertaining and funny, keep the audience constantly engaged.
He tells us another story of when they supported Iron Maiden on their sold out tour in 2003, what could go wrong? Well apparently everything. As we all know Iron Maidens diehard fan base are easily the most toxic fanbase out there who do not take well to support bands and for Murderdolls this was no different, every gig they were booed, given the middle finger and had bottles thrown at them, but that made them realise that “People hate me” which was another great segway into People Hate Me and then into Welcome to Strange.
We were then treated to a new Wednesday 13 song, Rock N Roll is All I Got, which is from the upcoming album due out in early 2025 and it sounds very promising, which will hopefully have them coming back to Ireland for another tour, they finish off this portion of the set with Nowhere, a hard hitting classic.
After a short break they are back for an encore to the very delighted audience, who have very clearly enjoying every minute of tonight’s show, unfortunately the first track of the encore White Wedding stops a quarter of the way in as the band “mess it up” they get a laugh and then start it again, the Billy Idol classic sounds fantastic live.
They then launch into the very fucking catchy I Love to Say Fuck, in which Im sure with the lyrics and the extra chanting from the crowd, the word fuck must have been shouted several hundred times. Wednesday 13 ends tonight’s show with Murderdolls first ever single and video, Dead in Hollywood. The band paid tribute to deceased band members Joey Jordanson and Ben Graves many times tonight and they did them proud.
The tour continues in Ireland with Dublin up next before heading back to the UK for Chester, 2 nights in Manchester, Bradford, Bristol, Wolverhampton and Southampton before being joined by Swedish rockers Hardcore Superstar for Great Yarmouth, Nottingham, London, Northampton and then onwards to Belgium, Germany and Italy to finish up.
South of Salem Setlist:
Let Us Prey
Jet Black Eyes
Made to Be Mine
Hellbound Heart
Static
Vultures
Death of the Party
Left For Dead
Cold Day in Hell
Wednesday 13 Setlist:
Chapel of Blood
Death Valley Superstars
197666
Slit My Wrists
Love at First Fright
Motherfucker, I Don’t Care
My Dark Place Alone
Blood Stained Valentine
Pieces of You
Graverobbing USA
Die My Bride
Summertime Suicide
People Hate Me
Welcome to Strange
Rock N Roll is All I Got
Nowhere
White Wedding
I Love to Say Fuck
Dead in Hollywood
Photography by Darren Mcveigh for MPM
