The Garage, London
The North Carolina musician and his band comfort the crowd with a set of smart, beguiling songs played with skill and camaraderie

There’s a sense of solace and welcome to MJ Lenderman’s music, a warmth that runs counter to a wet and biting Monday night in mid-November, and carries all the way to the back wall of a packed London Garage. Its affability lies partly in a certain familiarity – songs carried with the gait of Pavement or Guided By Voices, while Lenderman’s voice sits high and back and wavering, like Will Oldham or Jason Molina.

But it’s also down to the distinction of the musicianship on display tonight; Lenderman’s band is named the Wind, and they play with a kind of camaraderie – easy, effortless, at times jostling like puppies. Pedal steel and percussionist Xandy Chelmis’s frenetic moves providing a foil for the frontman’s loping demeanour.