If you were to design a musician in a lab to appeal to me, you’d be hard pressed to do better than MJ Lenderman. One of the most interesting figures to emerge in the last several years from the indie rock scene, his music combines the elements of much of the music I love: the alt-country of Jason Molina and the Drive-By Truckers (he covered Patterson Hood’s “Uncle Disney”), the roots rock of the Counting Crows, and the songcraft of Warren Zevon and Bob Dylan (his encore included a deep cut, “Something There Is About You”). He even has a song about professional wrestling (“TLC Cage Match”) that made into his recent set, the first of two nights at the 9:30 Club.
Lenderman’s career began as a sideman, playing guitar for fellow North Carolinian Indigo de Souza and in the band Wednesday. He played on Waxahatchee’s latest album, Tiger’s Blood, and handled lead guitar on her tour last summer, including her stop at Wolf Trap. As great a guitar player as he is, his own work has shown he’s a great songwriter, too, often showing great insights into the everyday stuff of life (one doesn’t get much more every day than “You Ate Too Much At the Fair” or “Someone Get the Grill Out of the Rain”), relationships (“You Are Every Girl to Me,” “She’s Leaving You”), and his preoccupation with sports: “Hangover Game” is about a heroic performance by Michael Jordan in the NBA finals. (The official line from Jordan and his camp is that he had the flu, but it has long been rumored he had been out drinking and partying the night before.)
Watch the official music video for “Hangover Game” by MJ Lenderman on YouTube:
I mentioned Jason Molina, and the comparisons are particularly apt when it comes to MJ’s singing voice. A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Lenderman has a similar Appalachian-inflection, nasal twang. And, like Molina, he also mixes twang with loud, noisy guitars, a combination that marks both of them as descendants of Neil Young. As valid as these comparisons are, and while the influence is surely there, Lenderman cuts a distinctive swathe, with an idiosyncratic and unique voice. (It might be said that the way MJ goes deep into his own interests and obsessions is distinctly Young-ian.)
As much as he loves his high-powered electric guitars, Lenderman is just as capable of switching it and going for a softer acoustic sound. He did two such songs on May 15, a tribute to the late actor “Rip Torn,” and “Manning Fireworks,” the title cut from his latest LP, which came out last year. He played the album in its entirety Thursday night in addition to “Manning Fireworks,” “Rip Torn,” and “She’s Leaving You,” he kicked off his set with “Rudolph” and played “Joker Lips,” “On My Knees,” “Wristwatch,” “Bark at the Moon,” and “You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In.” I was particularly tickled by the knock he takes at Eric Clapton in “She’s Every Girl to Me”; I share his belief that Slowhand is not the “second coming.” (I don’t really find any of his solo work particularly engaging.)
Lenderman didn’t say much during the set, sticking to the music. A couple of members of his band, the Turkey Brothers, got political with criticisms of the current administration during a jam at the beginning of the encore. For the last number of the evening, Lenderman brought out Nate Amos, frontman of opening act This Is Lorelei, for a song they worked on together, “Dancing in the Club,” which Lorelei also did during their set.
This Is Lorelei’s debut album, Box for Buddy, Box for Star, marks the first release of solo material by Amos, who is also part of the duo Water For Your Eyes. While he brings his own unique set of influences to his work, Amos shares Lenderman’s love for heartland rock and singer-songwriters. He got a solid 45 minutes with his band to do a highly engaging set comprising eight songs from their album.
Over time, what was once the bleeding edge of music gets reclassified as classic rock. In that respect, both Amos and Lenderman are classicists, putting their own unique twist on the sounds of ’90s and beyond. For people who say rock music is dead, they need look no further than these two artists, who are making great rock ‘n roll and putting on fantastic performances.
