Wednesday 13 will be bringing somewhat of a special show to HRH in Great Yarmouth in November, with a full Murderdolls set. The artist’s forthcoming UK dates will see the Ghoulish frontman mark 20 years of his iconic former band with Joey Jordison.
The UK has always been a key destination for the US-based artist. “I’d say the UK has always been very receptive to anything I do in every capacity from me doing my acoustic shows, to me testing out my side project Gunfire 76 there, everything has always been cool. So, I always know that I can go there and tour and have an audience waiting,” he said. “Last tour, I think half the tour was sold out and the upcoming tour for this fall is well on its way as well. We’ve already got sellouts on that, we’ve added shows and upgraded venues. So, the demand in the UK has always been there. And in the US revisiting these Murderdoll songs has definitely sparked a bit of bit of interest for people.”
The show will feature a full set of Murderdolls songs, with the band revisiting their celebrated 2002 debut album, ‘Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls’ and their triumphant 2010 return, ‘Women And Children Last’. But how does it feel to be performing these songs after all this time? “It’s great. I mean, just being able to share these songs again with an audience live and see people’s reactions is great because Murderdolls really came and went with both albums. It was really quick and there wasn’t a lot of touring in many areas. And if you saw us once, you maybe didn’t see us again in the same area. And it only went on for two years, even though we’re celebrating 20 years at the band. The band was only active for two years and two albums. So, to go out and play the songs and meet people that never got the chance to see Murderdolls or hear the songs live and just to see the reaction on their face live is so overwhelming,” explains Wednesday 13.
The current tour has provided the opportunity for a new generation of fans to hear the Murderdolls’ repertoire performed live. “I’ve been able to take this all over the world and by the end of this year I will have completed that. The one thing I didn’t really expect was the younger audience coming out to see us where it’s basically the audience that was there 20 years ago have brought their kids. And right now, their kids are super fans. So that was something I’d never expected,” he reflects.
Joining Wednesday 13 on the road are Murderdolls alumni Roman Surman and Jack Tankersley, who each have their own experiences from that period in their career. “Everybody’s got their memories of what it was like when it was actually happening back in 2010 on the last record. So, we get to sort of relive that. And whenever I’m talking about the band, I don’t feel so alone on stage when I’m talking about it, because a lot of these stories I tell from that era, those guys were there and know what I’m talking about. And so, it’s like, I’m not just telling the story one-sided, they’re kind of sharing that too. So, it’s been a lot of fun.”
The band’s talismanic drummer Joey Jordison sadly passed away in 2021. But his life and musical legacy are celebrated by his former bandmates. “Being able to celebrate him with the audience every night and having the audience start Joey chants almost every night is a very cool thing. It’s a healing thing I think for us and the fans too,” he said. “When we do that little section of the show, and we talk about him, there’s a celebration, there’s a little bit of closure, there’s something there, and you see it every night, you feel it. So that’s been cool to share that.”
But what does Wednesday 13 remember most about the legendary drummer? “I was constantly learning from him. I think I learned everything I pretty much know in the studio, and the stuff I still use to this day is what I learned by watching him and some of his habits in the studio working on stuff. Sometimes I will catch myself in the studio doing something and I’ll go what would Joey do? Joey would redo that part? So yeah, he was a lot of fun to work with, it was easy to work with him for me. Just because we could instantly write songs together. And I would make him laugh and impress him with a fun song. A lot of those songs were songs that made us giggle because they were so snotty. And so, punk rock, and so in your face and he just liked that we could just spin off songs like that.”
He adds: “When it came to the live show and going out on stage, he was very much a drill sergeant. Like, you need to go out there and go for it, and there’s no staring at your shoes. And you felt kind of like if you didn’t go out there and do that you were going to get yelled at when he got off stage. And so, it was an experience playing with him. It wasn’t just this is just another guy in a band. I mean, it was a job. I was really lucky to get to spend the time I did with him and create what we did.”
Having toured the Murderdolls set around the world, does the artist have an idea of how the UK dates might look? “What ended up being the setlist I took to the US and through all the shows in Australia were the songs that we learned back in October, and we’ve just gotten better at playing them. Not that we weren’t good in the beginning, but a lot of those songs that I picked, I think there are thirteen off the first album and seven off the second one. And there’s more than a handful of songs that I wish that we had time to play, but that’s already an hour and a half not including me talking to the audience and telling stories and all that stuff. So, it’s hard to pick a setlist,” explains Wednesday 13. “If I were to do a round two of this going back to the same areas, it would be fun to play the songs that we didn’t play. But yeah, it was hard picking. And the very beginning several of them were picked off the fact that I was like, oh, these will be easier to sing. Because my range back then was very high. And when I first started rehearsing for this for the songs, I don’t know why it was like almost I had to relearn how to sing a lot of this stuff. And so, I had in my mind, I gave myself I think a lot of anxiety. So, I sort of picked the easiest ones for me. But now that I’ve been doing this for over six months and fifty-some shows doing the songs again, I feel I can play any song off any of the records now and sing them perfectly.”
Wednesday 13 is looking forward to what comes next. “I’m excited for the rest of this year because I’m going to play some songs that we haven’t played that haven’t been on the setlist throughout the rest of the year because the rest of 2024 is all Murderdoll songs live. And next year I’ll be back with Wednesday 13 stuff doing a new album and the shows will go back to those songs,” he concludes.
Wednesday 13 will be playing a Murderdolls set at HRH in Great Yarmouth. The festival takes place between 7th – 10th November. For further information please visit: https://hardrockhell.com/.
Interview by Adam Kennedy
Photo Credit: Shelly Dinferno
