Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

Wednesday at The Ritz

Johnny James, Managing Editor

Book now

Wednesday

The Ritz, Manchester
25 August 2026

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

From £29.95
Photo by Zachary Chick, courtesy of Grand Stand.
Book now

Karly Hartzman writes about people the way a good short-story writer does: with non-judgemental precision, letting detail do the emotional work. In ‘Gary’s II’, she recounts the story of a 33-year-old man who gets his teeth knocked out in a case of mistaken identity, later kneecapping his fishing-hat-clad attacker and getting winced at by a dentist. She tells it all in the same flat tone – the violence, the retaliation, the dentist telling the poor lad he needs dentures. “I always did wonder how your teeth stayed so nice,” she signs off, “when the only thing you drink is Pepsi”.

Wednesday’s sixth album Bleeds is also their: 12 songs about ordinary American life, and the people living on various edges of it. Hartzman provides the character vignettes and brilliantly vivid imagery – “Weeds grew into the springs of the trampoline / a pitbull puppy pissin’ off a balcony” – and her bandmates, including the omnipresent MJ Lenderman on guitar and Xandy Chelmis on pedal steel, fill them in with country warmth, indie-pop hooks and squealy, noisy sludge.

a graphic image
Tour artwork, supplied by Leeds Inspired.

Hartzman’s voice is as central to Wednesday as her writing, and Bleeds shows its full range. On ‘Elderberry Wine’ it’s almost unbearably sweet, sentimentalising pickled eggs over twangy pedal steel. On ‘Wasp’, a late-album sucker punch, it’s never sounded more corrosive, with Hartzman full-on screaming what are actually pretty beautiful and vulnerable lyrics: “My life is a spider web / built into the doorway / When you walk in you duck your head.”

Produced by Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, Bleeds was appropriately lapped up by critics – an 8.7 from Pitchfork, the rock album of the year from NPR, the year’s best alt-rock release from The Guardian. The band seem chuffed with the record, too. “This is what Wednesday songs are supposed to sound like,” Hartzman has said. “We’ve devoted a lot of our lives to figuring this out – and I feel like we did.”

Seems there hasn’t been a better moment yet to catch Wednesday live.

Featured in

One Leg One Eye
Music

From manifesto-wielding DJs to bands blurring gigs with performance art, our music guide is newly stocked with artists who see live music as a place for risk.

Where to go near Wednesday at The Ritz

Rain Bar pub in Manchester
City Centre
Bar or Pub
Rain Bar

This huge three-floor pub, formerly a Victorian warehouse, then an umbrella factory (hence the name), has one of the city centre’s largest beer gardens. The two-tier terrace overlooks the Rochdale canal and what used to be the back of the Hacienda, providing an unusual, historic view of the city.

City Centre
Bar or Pub
Peveril Of The Peak

Iconic Manchester pub adorned with the sorts of bottle green, yellow and brown Victorian tiles that are a reclamation yard’s dream – this gem of a boozer is named after Sir Walter Scott’s novel of the same name and was a favourite hang-out of Eric Cantona.

HOME Manchester
Manchester
Theatre
HOME Manchester

Offering a packed schedule of events and things to do, HOME Manchester is one of the city’s leading hubs for arts and culture.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
The Briton’s Protection

Standing on the corner of a junction opposite The Bridgewater Hall, The Briton’s Protection is Manchester’s oldest pub. It has occupied the same spot since 1795, going under the equally

Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Burgess Cafe Bar
at IABF

Small but perfectly-formed café – which also serves as the in-house bookstore, stocking all manner of Burgess-related works, along with recordings of his music. It’s a welcoming space, with huge glass windows making for a bright, welcoming atmosphere.

Manchester
Restaurant
Indian Tiffin Room, Manchester

Indian Tiffin Room is a restaurant specialising in Indian street food, with branches in Cheadle and Manchester. This is the information for the Manchester venue.

City Centre
Bar or Pub
The Temple

Originally called The Temple of Convenience owing to its former life as a public toilet block, this is a tiny bar with some of the finest bathroom graffiti in town.

See all places

What's on: Music

SILVERWINGKILLER - Press Image
Music
SILVERWINGKILLER at The White Hotel

A key name in a local music scene increasingly coming to national attention, SILVERWINGKILLER bring their maximalist electronic punk to The White Hotel.

From £11.50
Abel Selaocoe_Spring 2026_credit Phil Sharp_sq
Until
MusicManchester
Inspirational Artists at RNCM

The RNCM launches its second Inspirational Artists series, spotlighting a huge range of touring musicians and ensembles, each bringing something unique to the stage.

From £12.50
Until
MusicCity Centre
The Hallé 2025-26 Season

The Hallé invites audiences to a year of classical masterpieces, world premieres and appearances by some electrifying artists and composers.

From £17

Culture Guides

One Leg One Eye
Music

From manifesto-wielding DJs to bands blurring gigs with performance art, our music guide is newly stocked with artists who see live music as a place for risk.

Food and Drink in the North

There’s been lamb, there’s been champagne, there’s been okra. Look at what you could have eaten, then plan the next few weeks accordingly.

Hofesh Shechter - Theatre of Dreams at Lowry
Theatre

Dark comedy, visceral dance theatre, Fringe hits and open-air performances on a railway viaduct - try something new this season.

Exhibitions

From post-it-sized art to commissions that fill entire gallery walls, five exhibitions ask what the overlooked reveals.

Emily Lloyd-Saini as Grace in Space and Harrie Hayes as Lieutenant Strong in Horrible Science
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.

See all guides