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Show Lineup: Wild Pink, MJ Lenderman and The Wild
Genre(s): Alt-Country, Rock, Indie Rock, Folk Rock, Heartland Rock
Venue: Rialto Theatre
Date: 2/11/25
On the day of February 11th, I arrived 10 minutes prior to doors opening, and the surprise on my face was palpable as I realized the line didn’t wrap around the block. It’s not like MJ Lenderman is no small artist. Though I suppose that was a good thing as I made it through the queue and security in a quick matter, rather it took me longer to shove my items back in my pockets than it took to get through the security check.
As I made my way into the theatre, I jumped at the opportunity to get into the merch line while it was like 5 people long and snagged myself a CD of Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman. I was able to grab a spot near the front by the barricade and was able to remain there for the entire show. I was fully expecting to be trash-compacted once MJ Lenderman came on stage or to be shoved further back as the night progressed, but nothing of the sort happened. I’ll have to account that for the ring of tall dudes surrounding me, which is like a blessing and a curse. Sometimes all of them would part like the Red Sea and the view was perfect, and other times it was like they were coordinating and they would eclipse to block my view.
The opener was Wild Pink, an indie-rock band from NYC. Wild Pink consists of John Ross (vocals, guitar, and harmonica), Arden Yonkers (bass), Dan Keegan (drums), and Mike Brenner (pedal steel and saxophone). My view of Yonkers on bass was mainly obstructed, but of what I could see, he was going crazy and his long hair was swinging every direction. The bulk of my attention fell onto Brenner, who was juggling between playing the steel guitar, switching off to play snippets of saxophone and then sitting down to play the pedal steel. If there’s one thing about me that you should know, it’s that I love the pedal steel. So my near clear view of it, is like those dancing fruits in front of babies. Though my favorite part of their performance was when Ross pulled out his harmonica and alternated between singing and playing the harmonica. I was not particularly familiar with Wild Pink prior to attending this show, with the exception of listening to Dulling The Horns in the few weeks leading up to the show. But I can assure you that I will, starting now.
Now for the main course, MJ Lenderman and The Wind, consisting of MJ Lenderman (vocals and guitar), Jon Samuels (guitar), Landon George (bass), Colin Miller (drums), Ethan Baechtold (keys), and Xandy Chelmis (pedal steel, guitar, tambourine, and fiddle). They played my favorite track off Manning Fireworks, “You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In”, though based off the energy of the crowd it seems “On My Knees” was the fan favorite. If I wasn’t a fan of Lenderman’s new album before, attending this show only reinforced my love for the tracks that I didn’t show enough love to. MJ Lenderman and The Wind have such good chemistry on stage that every song was an absolute hit and that could be felt in the crowd too. Everyone in the vicinity was tapping their feet and nodding their heads to the beat, and many were belting out the lyrics on top of that. They seemed to be on top of their game, that can be accounted for by them just finally healing from their food poisoning. In the wise words of Landon: “Love is like a fart, if you have to force it, it’s sh*t.”, in reference to the band healing from their food poisoning and the theme of love in the air with Valentine’s Day coming up.
Reviewer Name: K Galich
Date of Review: February 12, 2025
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