Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman make sold-out Riverside Theater their home

After walking into The Riverside Theater for Tuesday night’s sold-out Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman show, I momentarily thought perhaps I was in the wrong venue. Rather than the usual gaudy trappings of most touring bands, the simple stage setting was more reminiscent of a community theater’s threadbare production of Henry Miller’s Death Of A Salesman, as it was adorned with modest vintage lamps and knickknacks straight from a local secondhand store, including a stuffed dog.

And while the stage may have looked like Willy Loman’s humble Brooklyn living room, once both artists hit the stage together it quickly became evident that a better likeness than the Loman family was American folk stalwarts the Carter Family, both musically and thematically. Nonetheless, by the end of the co-headliners’ 27-song Americana-inspired set, themes true of both the Loman and Carter families were vividly on display. Songs of family, faith, love, loss, desperation, addiction, and heartache were constants throughout the immaculate 90-minute set that kept the grateful crowd rapt until the final note.

Billed as a co-headlining tour, it was exactly that; not two separate sets, but one set with the artists alternating songs. Waxahatchee is the musical project of Kathryn Crutchfield, known as “Katie,” who adopted the band name from a creek near where she was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She and MJ Lenderman, better known as “Jake” to those in the know (someone in the know told me that), have been frequent collaborators. After Waxahatchee’s exceptional 2020 release Saint Cloud, Lenderman ended up playing a prominent role on Waxahatchee’s follow-up LP, 2025’s Tigers Blood, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album. In addition, the two recently created yet another project, the band Snocaps, along with Crutchfield’s sister Allison and producer Brad Cook. Waxahatchee’s set featured many selections from both Saint Cloud and Tigers Blood, with the former dealing with her bouts with alcohol and the latter touching on her post-sobriety reality.

Not to be outdone, Lenderman is coming off an equally profound period of critical and artistic success. Lenderman is also a non-touring member of the band Wednesday, which just played Milwaukee in support of their 2025 release Bleeds. Like Wednesday, Lenderman hails from Asheville, North Carolina, and he is still basking in the praise of his 2024 release Manning Fireworks, which was featured prominently during Tuesday night’s show. Joining Lenderman and Crutchfield were Twin Peaks’ Colin Croom on lap steel, guitar, harmonica, and vocals; and Cole Berggren on keyboard and banjo. While Milwaukee was somewhat of a midpoint on their current tour, the four musicians performed beautifully and flawlessly, as if this was the last stop.

After the musicians took the stage, Lenderman opened with the title track of his recent release, which features witty lyrics indicative of a modern-day southern Warren Zevon:

You’ve been betting on horses named “Johnny Come Lately”
You’ve been high on the hog
And the dogs seem to hate you

You once was a baby and now a jerk
Standing close to the pyre, manning fireworks
Once a perfect little baby
Who’s now a jerk
Standing close to the pyre, manning fireworks

While Lenderman’s voice is always engaging, in the stripped-down, largely acoustic setting it was surprisingly, dare I say, pretty, while retaining a certain nasally alt-country drawl. Certainly, Crutchfield’s seamless harmonies played a role in this phenomenon, but it displayed an exciting aspect of Lenderman’s range.

Crutchfield then followed with “Evil Spawn,” a lovely yet reflective song about the end of the “good old days” and past behavior. Written before she recently announced she was pregnant, the title may have a conflicted meaning now, but the song delighted the crowd. Crutchfield’s voice was pristine as always and only enhanced by Lenderman’s, and often Croom’s, harmonies. These opening songs set the tone for the entire evening, a laid-back intimate house show, if your house could fit 2,400 very well-mannered and appreciative Milwaukeeans.

The night was filled with highlights as each artist played every song the crowd could have hoped for, but Crutchfield’s cover of This Is Lorelei‘s “Where’s Your Love” clearly shone. This Is Lorelei is the project of Nate Amos, who is also the lead guitarist and producer of the indie pop band Water From Your Eyes, and who Crutchfield professes is “one of the best songwriters of this moment.” Coincidently, Lenderman has also covered a This is Lorelei song, “Dancing In The Club,” which Rolling Stone deemed one of the best songs of 2025. Crutchfield’s cover of “Where’s Your Love Now” was no less impressive, sung in her signature subdued and emotive style, with lyrics that seem as if she wrote the song herself:

I said, where’s your love now?
Long after your song is over
You left me to drink, I thought I’d die in my sleep
But I’m healthier now
And I’m happier now
Long after our love is over
But you lied me a hole I thought I couldn’t repair
And you didn’t blink

The main set ended with three of the biggest crowd pleasers, Waxahatchee’s “Tigers Blood,” Lenderman’s hit “Wristwatch,” and finally, “Right Back To It,” which while a Waxahatchee song, was an early collaboration with Lenderman and was a fitting end to a great set, bringing the crowd to its feet begging for an encore.

The crowd did not have to wait long for a perfectly curated encore of four Americana covers. It started with a wonderful rendition of Iris DeMent‘s “My Life,” which was prefaced by Lenderman’s advice that it was “okay if you want to cry.” For the final three songs they brought out opener Brennan Wedl, which was more than fitting. Wedl is from Minnesota and described herself as a “Midwestern girlie” who plays what might be described as indie alt-country music. She played a tight and enjoyable 30-minute opening set that featured her Lucinda Williams-inspired lyrics and vocals, often accompanied by some Billy Bragg-inspired guitar. She certainly made some new fans in Milwaukee.

Appropriately, the next song in the encore was Lucinda Williams’ “Abandoned,” and then The Jayhawks’ “All The Right Reasons.” The alt-country vocals and harmonies of all three artists sparkled on these songs, though initially it was a bit jarring to hear a male voice singing the evocative lyrics to Lucinda’s amazing song. The night concluded with a splendid cover of Kathleen Edwards‘ “Six O’Clock News.” While Edwards is Canadian, she evokes all the greatness of Americana, and the cover brought the curtain down perfectly on an intimate and wonderful dual performance from Crutchfield and Lenderman. It turned out I was in the right venue after all.