Wednesday Week Record Release Party with Gary Calamar and His Imaginary Friends
Los Angeles band Wednesday Week returns with the original foursome: sisters Kristi and Kelly Callan (vocals, guitar, and drums), Heidi Rodewald (bass), and David Nolte (lead guitar) for a record-release show in the Wild Honey Back Yard on October 25. It is their first full set together in 20+ years, a rare chance to hear the classic lineup play as a band rather than as guests in a tribute.
The occasion is the October release, on Label 51 Recordings, of a four-song covers EP produced by Don Dixon. Recorded in March 2020 and delayed by the pandemic, the EP finds the band playing songs by The Zeros, Sandie Shaw, Color Me Gone, and Dolly Mixture. Dixon also produced their 1987 album What We Had.
Named after an Undertones song, Wednesday Week emerged in early-’80s Los Angeles alongside the Paisley Underground, appearing on The Radio Tokyo Tapes and Warf Rat Tales compilations. They released the Betsy’s House EP (WarfRat, 1983, produced by Vitus Mataré), What We Had (Enigma, 1987), and No Going Back (Sweden Spins, 1990, produced by Earle Mankey). After that last album the lineup parted ways. Rodewald later received a Tony nomination for Passing Strange while Nolte went on to work with David Gray and Dave Davies.
The four last shared a stage in February 2020, performing one song at Wild Honey’s Lovin’ Spoonful tribute at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. October 25 is the full-band return: a record-release party in the Wild Honey Back Yard with old friend Gary Calamar and His Imaginary Friends.
Los Angeles band Wednesday Week (named after an Undertones song) debuted alongside the flowering, droning and buzzing neo-psych Paisley Underground on the early '80s compilations "The Radio Tokyo Tapes" and "WarfRat Tales." Linked to their SoCal contemporaries by a DIY garage sensibility, Wednesday Week was led by sisters Kristi and Kelly Callan on vocals, guitar, and drums, and included Heidi Rodewald on bass, who went on to be nominated for a Tony for Passing Strange, and David Nolte on lead guitar, who went on to play with David Gray and Dave Davies among many others. The band released the acclaimed “Betsy’s House” EP on WarfRat Records in 1983 produced by Vitus Mataré, “What We Had", a full length album produced by Don Dixon (REM, The Smithereens) in 1987 on Engima Records, and the Earle Mankey produced “No Going Back” on Sweden Spins Records in 1990, after which the band broke up.
In the 1980s, the band toured the United States and Canada, and had tracks featured in such films as Slumber Party Massacre Part 2, Undercover, as well as Doing Time on Planet Earth, appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show, Much Music in Canada, and were regularly seen on MTV’s 120 Minutes.
The original foursome reunited with their “What We Had” producer, Don Dixon to record a four-song EP single finishing just days before the pandemic shutdown in March 2020. The EP was put on the backburner until a conversation with Label 51’s Bill Hein (formerly of Enigma Records) revived the project. Featuring cover songs the band used to play back in the 1980s by Sandie Shaw, The Zeros, Dolly Mixture and Cover Me Gone, the EP is a souvenir, or memento of days gone by.
Wednesday Week will be touring to promote the EP single toward the end of 2026 with UK dates planned in spring 2027 to support the 40th Anniversary reissue of their 1987 album, a double LP/CD including their Enigma release “What We Had” and previously unreleased tracks from the band’s archives, bringing back the golden heyday of alternative music before it was branded and commercialized by the major labels.