Concert Review: MJ Lenderman and The Wind (The Orange Peel)

BY PIXIE HOCKER

MJ Lenderman and The Wind brought Manning Fireworks home to Asheville on Saturday night, closing out his 2024 tour dates at the Orange Peel. MJ said he had been emailing Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band for years and he finally got him to not only respond, but to join them on this leg of the Manning Fireworks Tour. I genuinely couldn’t imagine a better opener for the night than Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, both bands' sounds meshed so well together and the audience clearly agreed.

The Wind consists of Jon Samuels, Colin Miller, Ethan Baechtold, Xandy Chelmis, and Landon George. But MJ Lenderman wasn’t only joined on stage by The Wind. A couple songs in, Karly Hartzman of Wednesday joined them onstage and stayed through the entirety of their set. Then for a few songs, including my favorite track from Manning Fireworks, “You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In,” they were joined by Shane McCord on the clarinet.

They ripped through Manning Fireworks in its entirety, his breakthrough album that came out this September. The Wind also worked in a few songs from MJ’s 2022 album Boat Songs, alongside several even older songs, like “Ghost Of Your Guitar Solo” and “Basketball #2.” And even newer songs, like, “Pianos,” the single he put out for Cardinals at the Window, New Commute’s benefit album (with 136 tracks) for Hurricane Helene relief.

Lenderman and his crew also tore through several covers, the first being Smog’s “37 Push Ups.” Their crew has covered this song on quite a few dates on this tour, the first of which being the album release party for Manning Fireworks at Harvest Records in Asheville, which I was lucky enough to attend as well. Lastly MJ closed out his encore with probably the biggest surprise of all. With the help of Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, they covered John Prine’s “Christmas in Prison.”

This was the last show that I will review for the year, but it easily could also be my favorite. MJ Lenderman was my most listened-to artist this year and Manning Fireworks was one of my favorite releases. This was a phenomenal show to say goodbye to 2024 with!

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PIXIE HOCKER

Pixie Hocker has loved music for as long as they can remember and has gone to more concerts than she can count. Pixie is the Music Director at her college station 90.5 WASU-FM and hosts a weekly specialty show at Boone Area Community Radio.

Read Pixie's posts here.