MJ Lenderman & Karly Hartzman at the Deer Lodge
words and photos by Avery Morgan
Playing a run of sold out acoustic shows on the West Coast, Karly Hartzman of Wednesday & Jake of MJ Lenderman visited Ojai’s Deer Lodge last December. Only a 40 minute drive up from UCSB, I arrived early to check out the venue. I spent a while walking around outside, surrounded by lush oak trees. Some of the staff working the show were also UCSB students, so it was sweet to chat beforehand and share excitement! I’d yet to see Wednesday or MJ Lenderman live, and was meeting people who had followed them throughout Europe or flown in for this show, so my expectations were set very high.
Dan Wriggins, the lead singer of Friendship, opened. Within Wriggin’s first few songs, his deep voice and slow singing style had people in the audience exclaiming how similar he sounded to Bill Callahan of Smog (who played the Deer Lodge in 2022). Wriggins’ voice immediately drew people from their seats at the bar and the entire venue floor was packed.
Karly flipped through a journal filled with guitar tabs, lyrics, & cute doodles in between every song to guide her playing. They played some hits off of their most recent album “Rat Saw God” (which got a much-deserved & rare 8.8 rating from Pitchfork). They played stripped back versions of hits like “Quarry”, “Turkey Vultures”, & “Bath County”. Since Wednesday usually plays live with a full band, I wasn’t sure if I would love the acoustic set, but it was genuinely my favorite concert I’ve ever seen.
The pair also played several covers, such as Perfect by Smashing Pumpkins & Women Without Whisky by Drive-by Truckers (which can be found on streaming services already yay). My favorite was their rendition of Wristwatch, an unreleased MJ song that can only be found by watching live performances on Youtube (edit: this ended up being on his new album so now on streaming services!). My friend Randy, who had seen them many times before, told me to keep an ear out for Jake’s dry harsh humor. When a rowdy audience member yelled out “West Coast, best coast!” Jake quickly responded, “East coast, beast coast.” I spent as much time giggling at Jake and Karly’s quips as I did holding back tears during their performances. The two have been dating for several years, talking about their relationship in between songs. Before playing Formula One, Karly talked about dating Jake for 5+ years, pondering that once you date someone for so long, your lives kind of meld together. This was apparent even in their playing; the synchronous acoustic strumming was clearly made easy through their connection. Most of the time, Karly wasn’t looking at her guitar or the audience, but instead smiling at Jake.
At the end of the show, Karly hung out by the merch table to sign records and take some pictures. The photo I got with her will not be included here because my bangs were so extremely sweaty… but I was super stoked to get my vinyl of I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone signed. After seeing their stripped-down set, I was immediately craving more Wednesday. Recently, they’ve wrapped up their tour cycle for “Rat Saw God”, making room for MJ Lenderman to tour for his upcoming album release — Manning Fireworks (out September 6th). Catch him in LA at the Fonda Theater on February 13th and 14th next year!
