MJ Lenderman at Market Hotel (photo by Ray Rusinak)
Truth be told, I had extremely high expectations for this MJ Lenderman show on Tuesday 2/7 at Market Hotel. Not only was his album, Boat Songs, a top 20 album for me in 2022, but I had heard from friends that MJ’s live show was not to be missed. Of course when he and his band passed through town as a support act for Plains back in November, I wasn’t able to attend. So I was particularly stoked for this show.
Add to this, the opener, Florry, was another band I’d heard great things about; their recently released EP, Sweet Guitar Solos has been in regular rotation for me since it dropped. And finally, at the last minute Trace Mountains, a band I’ve been trying to catch since before Covid times, was added to the bill and all of a sudden I was faced with the unusual trifecta of one bill with three bands to which I’d never seen but had keen interest in. The glass half empty side of me feared that there was no way this show could live up to my lofty expectations. But low and behold, the show shattered them like I could never have imagined. This was not only the best show I’ve seen thus far in 2023, but in some time in general.
Lenderman’s set started off with “TLC Cage Match” off of Boat Songs, with a gentle strum of his guitar before Xandy Chelmis joins in, making his pedal steel cry like a baby being ripped from his momma. Full disclosure, I’m a huge sucker for all things pedal steel and right from the get go, Chelmis hit me square in my sweet spot.
Next up was “You Have Bought Yourself A Boat,” a bouncy jaunt that could have been culled from Dylan and The Bands’ Basement Tapes sessions. With Jon Samuel’s funky rhythm guitar work offering up visions of Robbie Robertson and Chelmis somehow making his pedal steel sound like Garth Hudson on accordion, I couldn’t help but feel like I was witnessing something special here. Anyone who knows me knows my true love and appreciation for The Band. I, to this day, still consider them one of the tightest, most cohesive and fluid bands I’ve ever seen. To that extent, seeing and hearing MJ and The Wind and their allowing me to reminisce the virtuosity of The Band is a penultimate honor for these guys.
Oddly, you might note that I haven’t actually said much about MJ himself thus far (who is also a member of Wednesday along with The Wind members Chelmis and guitarist Karly Hartzman). Situating himself off in the stage right corner of the triangular Market Hotel stage rather than front and center (that spot went to a seated Chelmis and his pedal steel guitar) speaks volumes as to MJ as a leader (which he clearly is) and the symbiotic chemistry between bandmates. Sure, he handled virtually all the stage banter, wrote and sings all the songs and has some serious chops on the guitar, but he also knows enough to defer when needed to his musical partners. Throughout the evening he was clearly quite confident calling the shots and being the band leader, yet smart enough to know that his band is adept and talented enough that he share the spotlight with them.
Speaking of “calling the shots,” it was great (and highly unusual in this day and age) to see the band work with no set list. Throughout the evening you could almost see light bulbs going off in MJ’s head and before you’d know it he’d be hand signaling across the stage or whispering into Ethan, the bassist’s ear to let everyone know what the next song was going to be. It even became the butt of a joke between he and Hartzman when MJ signaled the next song by pointing at his nose. Hartzman snarkily went off saying how MJ shoots off these hand signals which only he knows the meaning of. Lenderman’s response was “the next song is called ‘Rudolph’ (a great new song by the way) so I pointed to my nose…what else could it mean?”
MJ Lenderman and The Wind
Throughout the evening as everyone on stage played their roles within the well oiled machine that is The Wind, guitarists each eyeballing one another to see what the other was doing to create their own diverse sound. The back and forth between Lenderman and Samuel trading guitar licks as if they were Stephen Stills and Neil Young jamming to “Pre Road Downs” at The Fillmore East with CSNY. Speaking of Neil Young, you couldn’t help but notice the influence that Young and his band Crazy Horse has obviously had on Lenderman and his music.
The thing I find most interesting about Lenderman’s use of this influence is his take and reinterpretation of Young’s style. He clearly sees and hears Young through the troubled and anguished prism of Jason Molina (no stranger to Neil either). Molina’s band, Magnolia Electric Company, particularly during the Trials and Errors period of 2005 took Young’s sound to a very dark place and Lenderman too, kind of starts in that abyss but then pulls out of it with a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.
MJ Lenderman and The Wind
As for the opening acts, Trace Mountains hit the stage around 7:30pm. With accompaniment on keyboard and drums, Dave Benton, formerly of LVL UP and mastermind behind Trace Mountains served up a relatively somber yet enticing opening set.
Fellow Philadelphians Florry followed as they packed the stage and provided an enthusiastic and fun set of rocking indie Americana despite being plagued by monitor issues which prevented any vocals to be heard on stage.
To summarize, Lenderman has for one reason or another been lumped into the ubiquitous and oft-time ambiguous alt-country/americana stable. And yeah, at points in their show on Tuesday night that synopsis was accurate. But at other points MJ and The Wind were funky as all hell. That doesn’t mean they’re a funk band though. At other times they sounded like they were from Seatle 1995, but despite being grungy, they’re no grunge band either. A band that can have three guitarist on stage, all three doing a sonic feedback blitz that comes across almost symphonic, and a band that utilizes the pedal steel as the anchor that holds the band together is pretty much a band that defies the ability to be pigeon holed into any one space. And that is and was the beauty of MJ Lenderman and his band, The Wind, which I got to enjoy thoroughly at this show.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Ray Rusinak)
TRACE MOUNTAINS
FLORRY
MJ LENDERMAN & THE WIND
