With an abundance of accolades and attention MJ Lenderman has been getting recently, his attitude towards his music and shows has remained relatively calm and humble. His personality is so apparent in his songs and lyrics that he doesn’t do much to counteract that. No social media, Very relaxed and quiet in interviews, MJ has slowly become one of the most likeable singer-songwriters in the last year. I was fortunate to get a chance to see MJ Lenderman with the Wind and the incredible band Wild Pink.

Wild Pink walked onto the rickshaw stage with a midwestern finesse that stood out in the best possible way on a Vancouver stage. Their songs were perfectly placed in the set through ambient transitions, harmonica and saxophone solos and made for a well-rounded set of inspiring musical entertainment. The set started with two fantastic songs, St. Catherine St. and The Fences of Stonehenge. The set was made up solely of songs from Their excellent 2024 album Dulling The Horns, including some of the band’s best work and fantastic high-energy songs like Disintegrate, Eating the Egg Whole and the Heavy and emotive Cloud or Mountain. Overall, the set was an amazing atmosphere setter before the much-anticipated set from Mr. Lenderman.

MJ Lenderman walked onto the stage with a loose and relaxed attitude while calmly yielding a bottle of tequila. The band eased into the set with a beautiful version of a new song, Pianos off the Cardinals at the Window Benefit album for the flood relief in western North Carolina. Opening the set with this song showed how much MJ cares about his hometown, friends, and family with such a gentle and heartwarming performance. After the band calmly introduced us to the set, they launched into a more energetic, fun rock vibe with two songs off his WIdely Received album Boat Songs, with You Have Bought Your Self a Boat, which was performed really well and transitioned very smoothly into TLC Cage Match.

Four songs into the set, he started to play songs off his most recent album, Manning Fireworks, which the crowd went absolutely crazy to. Starting with Rudolph, which featured some absolutely ripping guitar playing from MJ and guitarist Jon Samuels. Then, going into the two biggest hits off the album, Wristwatch and She’s Leaving You, which by no surprise were explosive as hell, and the crowd was going crazy for it. That guitar solo section in Wristwatch was so huge and really showed MJs Dinosaur Jr Influence on his sleeves in the best way possible, With the Wah filter guitar noise and big minor pentatonic bends playing the same melody of the vocals but pushing them to high gain extremes without ever getting into Butt rock territory.

One of my favourite moments from the set is when they played SUV off Boat Songs. It was like a totally different band took over, and they ripped the one-minute thrashing indie rock tune faster than I could ever imagine. It was a really nice dynamic change in the set and was such a rad moment overall, even if it only lasted one minute. Afterward, they played some more chill acoustic stuff off Manning Fireworks like Rip Torn, Manning Fireworks and You Dont Know The Shape Im In, which were all performed exceptionally well and had a very delicate yet live feel with the keyboards and Pedal Steel doing a lot more heavy lifting as well as the violin on Manning Fireworks. Another fantastic song off Boat Songs that was a big highlight from the set was Toontown which fully exploded in the second half to a noise freakout riff fest, which was quite delightful.

Bark at the Moon The final song off Manning Fireworks was in my mind going to for sure end the set when he played it after probably an hour through the set, especially with how epic they made the ending feedback swells that went into a way heavier riff then I could ever imagine in a MJ lendermen song. Right when I thought that it was the end, The show ended with No Mercy, A song I had never heard before, and I was pleasantly surprised. What an amazing last song. Of course, with all the hype and the love from fans selling out the shows on the tour, he can go back onstage to deliver two songs as an encore. The First one was a cover of A Lotta Love by Neil Young, which is obviously a huge inspiration for MJ. of course, the cover went absolutely nuts and left the fans wanting more before he played the final track of the night, Knockin, which up until that moment was not my favourite MJ Lenderman song But from that rendition and performance It truly did showcases the songs immaculate spirit and does really shows MJ’s Classic tongue and cheek lyricism. The song was an amazing end to the show and left the audience wanting more, which is always the best way to leave a show.

Wild Pink at The Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver, BC photo by Charlie Howell

Words by Ben lock
photos by Charlie Howell

order tickets for MJ Lenderman and Wild Pink HERE