published in The Daily Californian on February 25, 2025
It’s a Monday night in San Francisco’s Western Addition. Nestled between Masonic Avenue and Divisadero Street is NoPa, a micro-neighborhood home to the city’s hipster-wannabe tech bros and luxury grocery connoisseurs. It’s an odd place for someone as unpretentious as MJ Lenderman to perform.
MJ Lenderman and most of the Wind, his touring band, hail from Asheville, North Carolina. His alt-country sound, however, has earned him recognition far beyond the Bible Belt. Having collaborated with Indigo de Souza and Waxahatchee, Lenderman has been a fixture in the indie scene for years, but it wasn’t until the release of his 2024 record, Manning Fireworks, that his solo career began to skyrocket.
By the time I arrived at The Independent around 30 minutes before doors opened, the sidewalk was, to my surprise, almost completely empty. The only people in line with me were a very chic couple dressed in pajamas and an older man equipped with a backpack, a gimbal and a loaf of olive bread that he kept offering me. Lenderman’s music is special in the sense that it attracts a crowd that would otherwise have no reason to gather in the same room — from mustached, beanie-clad young men to Gen X-ers who regaled me with stories about smoking too much pot in college to a smattering of college students with millennial proclivities.
But don’t let the lack of a hazardous makeshift campsite, a la The 1975, outside the venue deceive you into underestimating the mystic appeal that follows MJ Lenderman. The show, his first of two in San Francisco, was completely sold out. As soon as the doors opened, swarms of people previously remaining unseen seemingly teleported into The Independent’s intimate space.
Following a fantastic opening set by New York-based indie rock band Wild Pink, the crowd buzzed with restless excitement. Jackets were shrugged off, ankles were awkwardly stretched and weed pens were hit until finally, more than two hours after doors opened, a shriek from a particularly observant fan signaled to the rest of us that Lenderman and the Wind were finally making their appearance. Each accompanied by a bottle of beer — or two High Noons, in the case of his guitarist — Lenderman and his band traipsed onto the stage with an easygoing air that would come across as overconfident had it come from anyone less talented. A stick of the longest incense I’ve ever seen was lit, and the band immediately waltzed into “Ghost of Your Guitar Solo.”
Somewhere between the third and fourth song, Lenderman’s pedal steel guitarist had to restring his instrument for the first time this tour, joking that “they never break unless we’re in San Francisco.” Lenderman and his band interacted with the crowd as though they were still playing house shows, not late-night shows. Despite the glassy-eyed admiration from their fans and the way the entire venue whooped and cheered at every moment of silence, they were well-versed in humility — just a group of friends who like music.
Lenderman’s performance of his single, “Wristwatch,” inspired by the insurgence of Andrew Tate-esque alpha males, was met with open arms. A particularly passionate fan raised their palms to the sky as if they were praising God. Couples spooned and swayed. The entire front row was misty-eyed — myself included. Sure, a line such as “I’ve got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome” is comical. But then you’re hit with the refrain, “And a wristwatch that tells me I’m on my own,” and that’s enough to give you a weird feeling in your chest.
Besides playing his greatest hits, Lenderman made sure to share some love for his deep cuts — most memorably, “Toontown”. With the same mix of silly and sad that has come to define his music, the chorus is farcically heartbreaking: “Did you find my Disney World? Did it make you dizzy, girl? When it fell apart/Did it break your heart?”
Lenderman graced San Francisco with the elegance and slight awkwardness of a man who just wants to play his guitar and, for all the lovers and lonely hearts at The Independent on a Monday night, he did.
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