By: Nathaniel Neace
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee Trey Anastasio recently said this in an interview with GQ when he was praising the new MJ Lenderman album, Manning Fireworks. Anastasio couldn’t be more right, Lenderman’s sound is exactly what being in your twenties in the midwest should sound like, and he’s getting as much out of it while living through it. I became hip to Lenderman back in 2021 with his Knockin’ EP (TV Dinners is still a favorite of mine!), but Manning Fireworks has taken him to new heights. The new album has Lenderman wearing his influences on his sleeves, all of them coming together to make a one of a kind, slacker country sound (it sounds better than it reads, I promise). I could talk on and on about the highlights of the album and how much the songs mean to me, but needless to say I am hooked!
I was fortunate enough to be granted the chance to see the last two nights of the first US leg of his tour, along with his backing band The Wind down in Lexington, Kentucky. This is the largest show I’ve ever had the pleasure of photographing, so during the drive down to the first night I had some nerves building up. Was I going to embarrass myself? Are my photos going to be any good? Am I even good enough to be doing this? These are all questions I had running through my head during the two hour trek. Luckily, as soon as I stepped into the Green Lantern Bar all my worries were extinguished.
The Green Lantern is a dive bar that looks straight out of a movie. As soon as you step in your face is illuminated by a massive Pabst Blue Ribbon sign and you are greeted with a pool table that you can just tell has been the source of many losing bets. In the venue area there’s a small, dimly lit platform where bands perform. This was exactly the environment I was used to and I couldn’t have been more excited to catch and photograph one of my favorite artists in it.
Opening act Wild Pink, an outfit from Brooklyn, blew me away with some great alternative, country-influenced sounds. They were touring not only as an opener, but also to showcase their new album Dulling The Horns. A real standout of their set was a cover of the Townes Van Zandt classic “If I Needed You”.
In the gap between the two acts, the bar filled up to be packed to the brim, and you could feel the anticipation in the air. This was a stark difference from Lenderman’s last time playing at the Green Lantern. Back in 2022 MJ Lenderman played a solo acoustic set, with an audience of about 50 people give or take. Coming back to the bar on the last two nights of his last big tour and packing it to the brim (well past capacity may I add) feels like a real victory lap before going onto the next phase of his career. When the lights in the venue went pitch black and “I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas, the band’s walk out song for the night, came on I knew I was in for an one of a kind experience.
The band came out and lit incense all around the stage, making for one of the best smelling shows I’ve ever seen. They opened up with the somber but sweet title track “Manning Fireworks”. There’s a real heart to Lenderman’s live sound and at the core of it is member of The Wind (and a Wednesday bandmate), Xandy Chelmis’ pedal steel playing. I’ve always had an affinity for the instrument, it’s sound really captures the soul of the classic country music that I grew up listening to, so it’s been a delight hearing it become more prevalent in some indie acts (Faye Webster also a key player in this pedal steel revival). Chelmis also does something I’ve never seen before, which is use a distortion pedal with the instrument, it creates a noise I can only describe as a volcanic roar. The crowd during this show was really vocal, a lot of shouts that got some chuckles out of the band. A highlight was when the band covered a Bob Dylan deepcut, “Something There Is About You” off of 1974’s Planet Waves. The encore was also something special, we were treated with a personal favorite cut of mine “Live Jack” in which Lenderman dreams about getting famous enough to grace Jack Nicholson’s courtside Lakers seats with his presence, and a crowd favorite “Knockin’”, another sports-orientated track that talks about witnessing golfer John Daly sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” with a lover. When the night ended, I couldn’t have been more satisfied with my experience and it would’ve been a great memory if it ended right there. However, I managed to catch the band’s tour manager who cleared me to go in for press and I decided to take a shot in the dark; I asked if I would be able to come back during soundcheck tomorrow to grab some photos for this very article, to my surprise she said absolutely! (Thanks Sammy!)
Getting there on night two, I had another unexpected surprise. Walking into the Green Lantern I was met with legendary music video director Lance Bangs (collaborator with acts like Sonic Youth and Pavement). Apparently they had been filming a music video for a song I won’t disclose because I’d rather not get in trouble. I won’t lie, I was a little starstruck but I absolutely cool guy’d him (sorry Lance!) because I had to get ready for the photoshoot. While the band was soundchecking (doing a killer cover of the song “Christian Brothers” that only I got to witness), I was searching around the bar for the best possible spot to take photos of the band members. Then I laid my eyes upon a working cigarette machine with a crumbling barstool perfectly placed right next to it, the perfect spot. The band was as kind as could be, some of them recognizing me from the night before. They were nice enough to write their names down on their individual polaroids, something I like to do with my personal photos.
The performance that night topped the previous show, getting some older cuts like the somber “Ghost of Your Guitar Solo” and the surprisingly not sports themed “Basketball #2”, but the absolute highlights of the night were the two covers. Firstly, the band played a staple of this tour “Uncle Disney” , a track originally performed by Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers. They decided to break this one out after a crowd member bought the band some well-deserved tequila shots. That’s another trait I didn’t mention before, Lenderman and the band keep a very casual and loose demeanor on stage, skipping a setlist and just calling out the songs as they go. To close out the night the band brought out friend and Kentucky native Ryan Davis to perform an extended, Lexington themed jam of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London”.
These are by far the best two shows I’ve ever had the chance to catch. Not only because of the fantastic personal experience I had with the band, but their sound quality and ability to grasp the attention of the audience made for an experience that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. MJ Lenderman is an artist to keep your eyes on, he’s entering the prime of his career and he’s already got a hell of a backlog. I recommend everyone reading to listen to Manning Fireworks if you haven’t, and try to catch one of his shows when he comes back around this summer.
