MJ Lenderman and the Wind played Kings Theatre

MJ Lenderman and the Wind wrapped up their epic tour in support of last year's phenomenal Manning Fireworks with a show sponsored by Rolling Stone at Brooklyn's Kings Theatre.

It's been just over a year since MJ Lenderman released his excellent record Manning Fireworks and he's been on tour with his band The Wind ever since it came out. They've played over 150 sets since the album dropped and they've "played New York City like fifteen times" on this tour, according to Lenderman's rough estimate, but even after so many shows, the finale felt just as special and euphoric as the ones that came before it. As the tour's progressed, Lenderman and crew have graduated from spaces like Music Hall of Williamsburg to Brooklyn Steel and now Kings Theatre, their biggest headlining set to date in the city to date, and to see the band make these moves has been a real highlight, their consistency an amazing part of what's made them so special at every stage of the tour. Opening the set was Annie Dirusso who kicked things off with a twang before Hovvdy's slowcore meets alt-country vibes helped surrender feelings from the crowd to something intimate and stirring. The band was in absolute cruise control, their slow pace of stretched out jams really helping to set the mood and their hints of R&B really added some divine texture to their already glowing sound. The crowd was fully into it as well with someone evening shouting out "you're my favorite band," which isn't typically the case for the opening act, but helped to make the night feel that much more special. As MJ and his band took to the stage around 9:30, they plucked their way into the title track from the last album and with the help from the crowd, ensued a sing-a-long from the very jump. The lyrics to that track in particular have felt especially relevant as of late and to be in a crowd of so many people shouting along to the words really honed in on the moment and brought even more light to these already stunning tunes. The band wasted no time to hit us with their buzzy cover of This is Lorelei's "Dancing at the Club" which was another early crowd favorite before they descended into a rousing and fuzzy take on "Rudolph" with that tickling riff doing the most to get the audience pumped up. As the jam disintegrated into blown-out distortion, the band segued wonderfully into "Toontown" and the crowd responded with epic cheer. As they've been doing throughout their journey, MJ's band really expands on these incredible tracks, banging out killer solos, but also holding ground in all the right places to let the emphasis of the lyrics grab hold in addition to their shoegaze-inspired noise blow outs. Oscillating between the crunchier, rocking jams and his slow burning thinkers, the set was evenly balanced and allowed the band to flex their dynamics and keep the pace of the show on their terms, punctuating just the right moments with bigger jams and moving at a more relaxed speed for tracks like "Rip Torn." Of course the big singles were major favorites of the night and they sprinkled them throughout. "Joker's Lips" came with a bit of drawl, letting the guitar really hang in the mix and "Wristwatch" really revved things up making for another huge sing-a-long moment that reached all the way to the back of the theatre. Already a distorted meltdown on record, "Bark at the Moon" was given the same measures live and the band ripped that sustained note like My Bloody Valentine, pushing the crowd towards some of the harshest moments of the night (in a good way) before flipping back to more of their sludgy hits. When the start of "She's Leaving You" rang out, the crowd came together once again and let it ring out in all its glory. After a quick break, bass player Landon George came out to encourage the crowd to vote and endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor before the rest of the band joined him to close out with a raging version of "Knockin'." After countless shows backing one of last year's best albums, MJ Lenderman and the Wind brought things to an end of Thursday and left everything they had out on the stage, an illustrious triumph to close out the biggest chapter yet in this young and aspirational career.

Set list:

01 "Manning Fireworks"
02 "Dancing in the Club" [This Is Lorelei cover]
03 "Rudolph"
04 "Toontown"
05 "Sacrifice (For Love)" [Greg Sage cover]
06 "Pick Up The Pieces"
07 "Joker Lips"

08 "Wristwatch"
09 "Rip Torn"
10 "I Ate Too Much at the Fair"
11 "Bark at the Moon"
12 "Left Your Smile"
13 "She's Leaving You"
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14 "Knockin'"