MJ Lenderman took the indie music scene by storm last September with his album “Manning Fireworks,” capturing the hearts of listeners and critics alike. It’s not just Gen Z under the 26-year-old’s spell – at his May 15 sold-out show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, there didn’t seem to be any demographic immune to his nonsensical yet vivid lyricism and unsuspecting charm.
Lenderman’s poignant storytelling is delivered via stripped-back guitar riffs and gritty folk rock anthems, hiding behind absurd imagery. On “Wristwatch,” he sings, “I’ve got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome / And a wristwatch that’s a pocket knife and a megaphone / And a wristwatch that tells me I’m on my own.” It’s hard to tell whether to laugh or cry to his music, to feel empathetic for the narrator or judge him for his stagnancy.
But the Asheville, North Carolina musician, who is also a member of the beloved indie rock band Wednesday, is doing something right. Seemingly simple experiences become profound through the Lenderman’s pen, such as sitting under a “half-mast McDonald’s flag,” and fans flocked to the 9:30 Club to witness his magic with their own eyes. The nightclub, where iconic acts like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and R.E.M. once played, was filled Thursday night.
MJ Lenderman gets lost in his live performance, but fans stay in on ‘the bit’
In his live performance, Lenderman seems oblivious to the doting audience latching onto his every word. He looks down for the majority of his set, his face scrunched, focused on the lyrics as if he were writing them in the moment. His nonchalant demeanor gives a sense of passion and impulsiveness necessary for both the ridiculousness and heaviness of his lyrics, driven by gut instincts rather than regard for rhyme or reason.
In a July 2024 interview with “The Guardian,” he revealed his desire to evade the spotlight: “Visibility and stuff, that’s not really something I’ve been after.”
So when he sings the song, “You Are Every Girl to Me,” it’s hard to imagine he’s serenading any particular audience member, unlike at shows from heartthrobs like Harry Styles, where fangirls (harmlessly) imagine he’s there to swoon only them. But even without locking eyes, his band plays in perfect synchrony; and, all the couples in the audience pulled their loved ones a little closer, whether it be friends, lovers, or the father-daughter duo standing next to my sister and me.
The few moments of eye contact during “You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In” were almost jarring. It felt like being woken up from a trance, lending an intimacy to the lyrics, “All you had to do was be nice… Be nice to me.”
On “Bark at the Moon,” the 10-minute finale to “Manning Fireworks,” he pleads, “You’re in on my bit / You’re sick of shtick? / Well what did you expect?” The second half of the song – both on the recording and during the live performance – includes nothing but distortion, swirling minutes of feedback into a rowdy crescendo, eventually bleeding into the short track “I Ate Too Much at the Fair” during his live set.
So were we, as an audience, also sick of Lenderman’s gimmick? At 9:30 Club, the opposite was true. When he asked if anyone planned to come again the next night, the better half of the crowd cheered.
“It’s gonna be a late night,” he joked, referencing that the doors for the May 16 show don’t open (fittingly) until 9:30 p.m.
When he interacted with the audience, glimmers of his whimsical personality shone.
“Thank you all so much, it’s awesome to be with you,” he told the crowd towards the end of his set. “What’s the thing when you ask the crowd what you want to hear? A request.”
Fans began shouting out deep cuts, but the fiddler shut them down: “The request lines are closed. We still love you.”
“I think you guys are really going to like these songs, I hope,” Lenderman promised. “You’ve been a great crowd, and you still are,” he added, chuckling at his own sentiment.
The ‘Turkey Brothers’ steal the encore with a boisterous jam
As fans begged for an encore to an empty stage, an unlikely guest took center stage.
The fiddler, Landon George, freestyled a rhythmic jam, introducing himself and a few of Lenderman’s bandmates as the “Turkey Brothers” from Hall Creek, taking us on a journey through DC’s history and a story of a band of brothers on a remote farm, dependent on dial-up internet.
At his sold-out show in New York City on April 25, Lenderman brought out state Assemblyman Zohran, a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, and a mayoral candidate.
During the Turkey Brothers’ performance on May 15, George sang, “You gotta have hope if you’re gonna keep it going forward. You gotta have hope if you’re gonna do anything about fascism,” before descending into a fiddle jam.
“Have you ever heard a grease fire on the fiddle?” he teased. “It sounds kind of like this.”
George’s solo culminated in a symphony of squeaks before MJ Lenderman returned to the stage for a two-song encore. “Give it up for the Turkey Brothers,” he cheered.
Ending the night with “Dancing in the Club,” a song written by and performed with Nate Amos of This if Lorelei, the energy in the room stayed high. It seemed as if it would be trapped there until the next night’s performance, bouncing off the walls until the crowd could sing lyrics like, “Once a perfect little baby / Who’s now a jerk / Standing close to the pyre manning fireworks,” again.
MJ Lenderman: 2025 tour setlist
Lenderman and his band have been changing the setlist order for each show, but the general list of songs has remained the same.
- Rudolph
- Inappropriate
- Toontown
- SUV
- Joker Lips
- On My Knees
- Wristwatch
- Rip Torn
- Manning Fireworks
- You Have Bought Yourself a Boat
- TLC Cage Match
- She’s Leaving You
- Uncle Disney (Patterson Hood cover)
- Bark at the Moon
- I Ate Too Much at the Fair
- You Are Every Girl to Me
- You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In
- Live Jack
- Someone Get the Grill Out of the Rain
- Hangover Game
- Knockin’Encore:
- Turkey Brothers Jam
- Something There Is About You (Bob Dylan cover)
- Dancing in the Club (with This is Lorelei)
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