Gallery: MJ Lenderman & The Wind at Franklin Music Hall

MJ Lenderman’s show at Franklin Music Hall on May 17 was a true “you had to be there” moment. It was Lenderman’s biggest-ever headline show and, according to our photographer Juliette Boulay, the 3,000-cap Philadelphia venue had never felt so packed before Saturday night. The Manning Fireworks Tour has kept chugging along since last fall, this time culminating in a 23-song setlist featuring a Dan Wriggins-assisted cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and a duet of “Dancing in the Club” with This Is Lorelei, who opened the gig. The show was filled with Manning Fireworks songs and deep cuts alike, including the best offerings from Lenderman’s 2021 cult classic, Ghost of Your Guitar Solo. Seriously, if you had the pleasure of hearing “I Ate Too Much at the Fair,” “Catholic Priest,” “Someone Get the Grill Out of the Rain,” “Live Jack,” and “Inappropriate,” you’re a lucky soul.

Last September, Lenderman released his fourth studio album, Manning Fireworks, which garnered a 9.2/10 score and has, quite honestly, only gotten better in the near-two months since. “MJ Lenderman is a compassionate narrator, finding humor and levity in the most pathetic of situations,” Paste contributor Andy Steiner wrote in his review. “On album closer ‘Bark at the Moon,’ he sings about never leaving his room and staying up late playing Guitar Hero. He admits that ‘You’re sick of the shtick,’ but still hopes that this person, nailing the notes of Ozzy Osbourne’s titular banger on expert, can also grow up. Lenderman lives up to his rising indie stardom, and Manning Fireworks confirms his status as a premier storyteller of broken hearts and bruised egos. But he also isn’t going to be anyone’s ‘dudes rock’ champion. No one can simplify this album down to its drinks and hangovers. Lenderman considers the flaws of the dudes he writes about, seeing them at their worst and still giving them grace.”

The following month, Lenderman was named a Paste cover star. “Lenderman doesn’t have a Shakespearean explanation for the ins and outs of his craft,” music editor Matt Mitchell wrote. “It’s the vocation that’s profound. The decision to pursue that vocation is profound too. The contradicting forces of desire and mourning in a song like ‘Joker Lips’ can stir a thousand different reactions from a thousand different people. Good music finds a way, and may we all take our time in a moment like this—where someone like Lenderman can wax poetic about Johnny Napalm, Lars Ümlaüt, Axel Steel and Xavier Stone in one sentence and then beautifully explain how he and his longtime collaborator/producer Alex Farrar ‘don’t have to say too much together to get where they’re trying to go’ in the music right after. Very rarely has phenomenal, provocative art come with such little pretense. ‘It falls apart, we all got work to do’ endures because most of us know how much both parts of that clause hurt.'”

Check out our photos from Lenderman’s Franklin Music Hall performance, captured by Juliette Boulay, below.