MJ Lenderman wows crowd following sell-out debut Glasgow show

Scottish Sun

2 days ago

Life is cyclical.
Music. Fashion. Politics. The longer you live the more you begin to wonder where you've seen something before.
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MJ Lenderman was originally due to play St Luke's but packed out the Old Fruitmarket
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The band blended melancholic rock with sharp lyrics
Thankfully to be familiar isn't always unfortunate.
Reinvention. Reimagination. Really f*****g good music.
Enter MJ Lenderman.
Bringing with him a hail of jagged chords, nasal vocals, and slide guitar that will make you wonder if the horrors of TikTok the rehabilitation of Shed Seven ever happened.
Last year his album, Manning Fireworks, with its shades of alt country, topped end of year lists and sold out initial pressings on LP. That fervour was followed with a run of sold out shows.
Tonight, his first performance in Glasgow, was upgraded from St Luke's to the glorious surroundings of the Old Fruitmarket.
And as the daybright noodlings of opener Joker Lips gives way the angst of On Your Knees the antique hoardings are rattling.
With a sound that veers from the ethereal sadness of Sparklehorse to Ragged Glory era Neil Young, you'd be forgiven for thinking MJ Lenderman was a man of advancing years but at 26 he's got an eye for a sharp line.
The swagger of youth, pushed on by his understated delivery, puts him at the centre of what feels like a slacker resurgence. But this is not grunge mark II - never has a calmer man wielded a Gibson SG.
A faithful cover of Sparklehorse's Maria's Little Elbows ramps up the melancholia with its refrain of 'Loneliness' before the blissed out blues are over.
The facade of millpond calmness slips with the steady pulse of She's Leaving You.
A gently chugging ode to the collapse of a relationship and a highlight from the album which builds, like so many things, to nothing.
Collapsing into itself with a haze of backing vocals as Lenderman's wandering guitar vanishes and ushering in jagged riff of Wristwatch, a two-fingered rebuttal, which explodes from the stage.
A string of facetious boasts 'I've got a houseboat up in Buffalo/and a wristwatch that's a compass and a cell phone/and a wristwatch that tells me you're all alone' are trapped by slashed chords and brooding bedroom vocals.
To play two of your best known tracks mid set is a bold move. But confidence is not something lacking tonight.
With youth often comes a sense of naivety and Bark At the Moon is a paean to inexperience. Chugging chords flirt with day-glo guitar solos before admitting: "I've never seen the Mona Lisa/I've never really left my room/I've been up too late with Guitar Hero/Playing "Bark At The Moon".
Sharp tongued and slight of frame MJ Lenderman may well be this year's great white hope for alt rock but don't let that put you off.
He may be young but in this game youth doesn't always equal inexperience - let's hope his first time in Scotland isn't his last.