This might be Jake Lenderman’s first show in London as a solo artist, but there’s a laconic ease in the way he commands the stage. Lenderman has played the city before with his band Wednesday, but 2024 has seen him break through as a solo artist thanks to his acclaimed fourth LP Manning Fireworks, and this is the first of two sold-out dates at The Garage (when he returns to London in June, it’ll be at the bigger Electric Ballroom).

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Lenderman’s voice commands a crowd who sing along to every word of songs about male fecklessness and millennial discord. “We’re having a moment!” enthuse a couple of twentysomething fans, disregarding the incongruity as they belt out the words to “She’s Leaving You”, a barbed assault on a deadbeat dad whose ass has just been soundly dumped.

Lenderman writes brilliantly about unhappiness, and he skewers pretension, displaying a caustic, side-eyed cynicism that fits neatly alongside the ’90s vibe of his music: a fusion of slacker indie-rock and alt.country that draws on the likes of Pavement, Silver Jews, Drive-By Truckers and Sparklehorse. That throwback element is reinforced by smart lyrics that are rammed with pop culture references from his youth – Rip Torn, Lucky Charms, Guitar Hero and “Travolta’s bald head”.

Michael Jordan has a starring role in one of the set’s landmark moments, “Hangover Game”, in which Lenderman playfully connects with the basketball legend over the refrain, “Yeah, I love drinking too”. Basketball crops up again on a rendition of “Basketball #2”, while references to Lenderman’s Catholic upbringing crop up throughout the set. Perhaps it’s a sign of his growing sense of ambition that on 2021’s Ghost Of Your Guitar Solo he muses only of becoming a “Catholic Priest”, whereas by Manning Fireworks’ “Joker’s Lips” he’s singing that “every Catholic knows he could’ve been Pope”.

Lenderman’s backing band The Wind includes multi-instrumentalist Xandy Chelmis from Wednesday, who plays pedal steel, violin and the most aggressive tambourine you’ve ever heard. Second guitarist Jon Samuels struts around his section of the stage like a caged cockfighter, while bassist Landon George breaks into a jig at every opportunity.

Lenderman himself might maintain a graceful poise in the centre of the stage but all the signs around him are of a band itching to cut loose, which they occasionally get the chance to do – initially in the fierce transition from “Rudolph” into a fragment of “Inappropriate”, and later with the punky blast of “SUV”. But Lenderman, for all his prowess on guitar, elects for restraint until “No Mercy”, when the band really get the chance to let rip as they plunge into a bass-heavy, proggy morass of sound on an epic bummer of a break-up song.

It sounds like something from the Ditch trilogy, although when Lenderman does cover Neil Young for the encore he goes deep and light with “Lotta Love” from Comes A Time, presented as a reaction to the US election. The band then launches into cathartic closer “Tastes Just Like It Costs”, a typically sly sketch about a bickering couple that showcases Lenderman’s superb short-story handling of domestic disputes as well as acting as a release for the band’s pent-up desire for musical mayhem. They swig from bottles of liquor and charge round the stage barging into each other while Lenderman remains stock still and central, absorbing the drama around him and channelling it into gold.

SET LIST
Manning Fireworks
Joker Lips
Wristwatch
Rudolph
Inappropriate
Catholic Priest
You Have Bought Yourself A Boat
TLC Death Match
Basketball #2
Pianos
You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In
On My Knees
She’s Leaving You
Rip Torn
SUV
Bark At The Moon
No Mercy
Hangover Game
Knockin’
ENCORE
Lotta Love
Tastes Just Like It Costs