We Went All the Way to Buffalo to See MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee: It Was Worth the Trip

When Manning Fireworks, MJ Lenderman’s fourth solo album, appeared in September 2024, something clicked. This prodigious record solidified the trends already at work in indie music across the Atlantic.

With a sound that leans country but isn’t strictly so, a touch folk, at times very rock, flawless, funny, and slacker-spirited, Manning Fireworks asserted once and for all that the revival was indeed here. The revival of all the Americana elements of adult American music: pedal steel, banjos, fiddle (the country nickname given to the violin), and heavily distorted guitars straight from the 1990s. 

Indie Scene Darling

Yet Jake “MJ” Lenderman cannot be reduced to merely a representative of the Dad Rock revival. In parallel with his solo career, the 27-year-old from Asheville, North Carolina, plays in Wednesday, the band led by the remarkable Karly Hartzman, his ex-girlfriend. Between country ballads, shoegaze saturations, and forays into hardcore territory punctuated by the narrative genius of their frontwoman, Wednesday offers, with Rat Saw God (2023) and Bleeds (2025), the most intriguing southern rock formula of the past twenty years. 

MJ has released three excellent solo records in succession, gradually shifting from the lo-fi rock of MJ Lenderman (2019) and Ghost of Your Guitar Solo (2021) toward a more syncretic blend of sounds that now fuels his success with Boat Songs (2022) and the dazzling Manning Fireworks (2024). Having grown up steeped in the music of The Band, later awed by the southern Drive-By Truckers and by Dinosaur Jr.’s guitars, Jake also absorbed the influence of Jason Molina (whose Just Be Simple he covered), Townes Van Zandt for guitar work, and, of course, Neil Young, whose vocal resemblance is striking.

Today, MJ Lenderman is one of the indie scene’s darlings for the American Gen Z, capable of filling 2,000 seats at Brooklyn Steel in New York in a matter of hours. Discovered by country superstar and anti-ICE advocate Zach Bryan, MJ Lenderman will join as a touring opener at stadiums from July onward.

Shared Trajectory

In November 2025, the announcement of this double Waxahatchee/MJ Lenderman tour generated considerable excitement among fans, because the two musicians share more than just Anti Records as a label. Katie Crutchfield also shares with Jake Lenderman a love for Townes Van Zandt and Jason Molina’s sound, which she has captured on several records with her husband Kevin Morby. Her musical trajectory bears a striking resemblance to MJ Lenderman’s. Katie Crutchfield began by playing punk-rock with her sister Allison in their band P.S. Eliot. With Waxahatchee, the Alabama native gradually abandoned the punk guitars of Cerulean Salt (2013) for a masterful return to roots on Saint Cloud (2020), the record that caught Anti Records’ eye and earned them a contract. 

Her public success was sealed with the dazzling Tigers Blood (2024), a country-rock record on which the indie scene’s new generation surrounds her. On drums, you’ll find, for example, Spencer Tweed (son of Jeff Tweedy of Wilco), and MJ Lenderman also features on the album’s first single, Right Back To It. More recently, Katie and Allison Crutchfield revealed Snocaps (2025), an album produced by Brad Cook, and the same name as the supergroup they now form with… MJ Lenderman who joined them on guitar. 

Dynamic Pricing, Yet Sluggish

This double tour has thus plenty to whet the appetite of any self-respecting indie rock aficionado. Coinciding with the calendar, the New York shows in April aligned with a long-planned city visit to the city that never sleeps. So on the day tickets go on sale online, I set myself up to make sure I grab one. The computer sits in the Brooklyn date’s online queue. The phone is set for the next night’s show at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan. 

When Ticketmaster finally shows a floor plan for Brooklyn Paramount, only a handful of general admission tickets remain, the equivalent of the pit. Expect more than $500 for a ticket. That’s completely insane. At the Beacon Theatre, it’s cheaper… around $400. The effects of dynamic pricing. In a city of 20 million people at the mercy of supply-and-demand fluctuations. That’s not going to work. So, what if I caught the Buffalo tour instead? It isn’t too far from the City. A good excuse to see the country. The Niagara Falls are nearby, apparently not bad. The overnight Greyhound round trip costs $100, and the ticket is $90. Super well placed, too. Okay, Deal. 

University Industrial Zone

Traveling by bus Greyhound in the United States is something to do at least once. You meet all of middle America. A somewhat less-religious Amish family, a broke student returning home to her parents, a granddad who no longer seems sure of where he is, and all sorts of lone, down-on-their-luck cowboys who you’d rather leave to their own devices. If memory serves, it’s in a Greyhound, by the window, that Ratso in the film Midnight Cowboy (Joe S…), played by Dustin Hoffman, takes his last breath. We’ll travel with his ghost to Buffalo.

All day I wander alone around the area until Niagara Falls, with two enormous bags weighing more than twenty kilos each. The UB Center for the Arts is set in a campus-industrial zone that you reach by car or, in my case, by bus. At the ticket control, a grandmother tells me I cannot enter with my bags. She’s probably doing this job to supplement her modest retirement. I tell her I’m from Paris, doing the round trip by Greyhound from New York. In short, I insist. No storage on site and the lobby closes in 30 minutes. Put my things behind the bar? “Are you out of your mind?” I try. I attempt the deadly Joker card of “I’d like to speak to your manager.”

A woman in her forties, stylish New Yorker, appears, looking me up and down. The discussion quickly becomes heated. The tone rises, two security guards move closer. “Thank you for your precious help, I’ll figure something out,” I say as I walk away. In the adjacent parking lot, people stare at their shoes when I ask them to stash my bags in their trunks. They probably think I’m crazy. I hurl my things into three poor bushes by the lake behind the concert hall. Yes, it’s risky. 

Electro-Acoustic Versions

MJ Lenderman kicks off the evening with Manning Fireworks. The UB Center for the Arts’ stage is transformed into a warm living room, with Persian carpets, candles, and lamps casting a soft glow through lace lampshades. All twenty-seven songs of the night are performed in superb electro-acoustic arrangements. Colin Croom (pedal and lap steel, resonator guitar) and Cole Berggren (piano, banjo, guitar, vocals), two musicians who tour with Waxahatchee, complete the ensemble. 

The glorious riff of Joker Lips, played on the steel, elicited howls of ecstasy from the crowd. The magic of the setlist followed suit as Waxahatchee moved into Can’t Do Much, with guitar just as addictive. The shock came when MJ Lenderman delivered a stark rendition of Rip Torn, his voice more piercing than ever, despite the naïve humor of the lyrics, which still confess the dread of a fame still fresh—“If you tap on the glass / The sharks might look at you / Damned if they don’t / And you’re damned if they do.” Crutchfield continued with the more driving Doom, from their collaborative project Snocaps. Lenderman provided harmonies to the vocal line, a perfect match. 

That Buffalo night, MJ Lenderman offered three new songs, starting with Fishing, a downtempo, completely demented number typical of the Asheville-based musician. He recounts a botched fishing trip and drifts into existential questions that lead into a beautiful instrumental section, crowned by Colin Croom’s electric resonator guitar notes. The arpeggios of Brawson’s and the moving words of the poignant Love Streams hint at an outstanding album set for release this year, one hopes. 

Passing the Baton

Waxahatchee enlisted MJ Lenderman on several numbers from her latest record. Beginning with Burns Out At Midnight, where his North Carolinian comrade lends some discreet vocals. On stage, the two guitars and vocal harmonies lend a unique depth to one of Waxahatchee’s best tracks. 

“This song was written by a friend, This is Lorelei. Nate Amos. It’s called Dancing in the club,” MJ whispers to us. What a privilege to witness this. When not writing for Water from Your Eyes, the experimental pop-rock duo he forms with Rachel Brown, Nate Amos releases music under the moniker This Is Lorelei. A respected songwriter who almost touches the status of “the artist’s favorite artist of your favorite artist,” Nate Amos has just signed with the New York label Matador Records. Dancing in The Club is taken from his debut album in that guise (he previously released dozens of EPs and mixtapes) Box for Buddy, Box for Star, reissued in a super-deluxe release in mid-April featuring covers of Hayley Williams, Waxahatchee, Snail Mail, Momma, and MJ Lenderman, of course. The country/folk arrangements that MJ brings give a cruel humanity to Dancing in The Club, originally a very electronic and nonchalant piece—“And I sang into my phone / I ate my dinner in the dark / And I fucked up my guitar / While I was fucking up my heart,” Jake Lenderman sings in a deliciously nasally voice. 

Waxahatchee begins to play Crowbar. For the first time of the night, the lyrics are sung by everyone in unison. The track is tailor-made for radio airplay. When the first guitar notes of Wristwatch ring out, the cheers erupt. Maybe he’s the star of the night. MJ Lenderman starts the first verse with a wry smile: “So you say I’ve got a funny face / It makes me money / So you say I’ve wasted my life away / Well, I got a beach home up in Buffalo”… A roar from the crowd upon hearing the city’s name. A thrill. One would never have provoked such a reaction in New York. 

There’s nothing better than their duet Right Back To It to kick off a small intermission. In the audience, many are in their twenties and thirties. They arrived with their groups of friends. There are also a lot of families. In short, the older fans came for Waxahatchee and the younger for MJ Lenderman. And everyone agrees on the luck of seeing them in the same place. What happened on this tour is a matter of transmission. Seeing Katie Crutchfield in a state of expectancy (she’s about to welcome her first child with Kevin Morby) sharing the stage with MJ Lenderman, ten years her junior, is pure passing of the baton. 

I Saw the Past…

Indeed, MJ and Waxahatchee launch into four encores. With Abandoned, Katie Crutchfield pays homage to the legend Lucinda Williams, a primary source of inspiration for her Saint Cloud album. Brennan Wedl, Anti Records’ promising new signing (who had opened the evening), joins MJ and Waxahatchee to sing All the Right Reasons by the Jayhawks, in three-part harmony. In a curious 2003 article titled “I Saw the Past of Rock ’n’ Roll, It’s Called the Jayhawks,” Inrocks spoke of the American group in these terms: “[…] when you love music, you love the Jayhawks. Their songs are so pretty, they contain so much Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young or Big Star, they smell of good earth and tears, and it’s hard to resist without a good dose of stubborn skepticism.” A fitting lineage. The final song is Six O’Clock News by Canadian Kathleen Edwards, which Katie Crutchfield also performs on her solo tours. 

At the end of the concert, back to reality. My two huge bags are still hidden in a hedge in the middle of the Buffalo campus. Well, I hope so. I have to get out, quickly. It’s night outside, the audience heads back to their cars in the parking lot. I walk around the building. I must look suspicious. A spike of adrenaline. The two bags are there, intact, as heavy as ever, ready to cut my back. 

At Buffalo’s bus station, some benches are occupied by the homeless, mostly asleep. Others laugh, make a bit of noise, nothing too violent. Six imbeciles from the Buffalo Police Department on patrol topple the bench of a man who had dozed off. He’ll wake up and crash to the floor. Am I the only one shocked? The Greyhound to New York leaves in an hour, at 12:35 a.m. Tomorrow, on arrival, I plan to go thrift shopping. “Don’t move to New York City, babe / It’s gonna change the way you dress” sings MJ Lenderman on Bark at the Moon. And actually, upon reflection, my bags are heavy enough as it is.