Two nights with Karly Hartzman and MJ Lenderman

“Fuck. I’m bleeding,” Karly Hartzman softly told the crowd.

The reaction inside Estonian House in Brunswick West was one-third sympathetic, one-third shocked and one-third unsure how to respond, with claret visible on the Wednesday front woman’s right hand.

“That’s a good thing though,” Hartzman continued, with a wry smile as she peered back up to face the crowd.

It was a fitting detail an hour into Wednesday’s set, bracing patrons for what would be a powerhouse finish.

As Hartzman and Xandy Chelmis (lap steel) incited a mosh pit for the final songs of the performance by letting the Melbourne crowd know that their Sydney counterparts had told them that Melburnians don’t know how to mosh, the energy in the room rose. Hartzman bled, bopping fans sweated and, with the final note of the show, the Asheville, North Carolina-based vocalist let out a goosebump-inducing scream as Bull Believer drew to a close.

Hartzman’s rangy vocals, melodies and lyrics are at the forefront of Wednesday, making for a fixating live performance, which has been fine-tuned across an uber-busy 11 months since the release of their critically-acclaimed Rat Saw God album. This show, on March 6, was already their 27th live show of 2024.

One night earlier, it was Hartzman’s partner and bandmate’s turn to entertain at the Brunswick Music Festival.

As doors opened at Howler, a couple were already asking the queue for any spare tickets for sale to the sold-out show, possibly underestimating the demand that MJ Lenderman And The Wind would have.

In fact, Lenderman himself was also blown away by the turnout, proclaiming how mindblown he was that he would be selling out a show in a city almost 16,000km away from his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina.

Often surveying the crowd throughout his performance, there was sincere appreciation shown from Lenderman who, with his five-piece band – including Hartzman, Chelmis and Ethan Baechtold (bass) from Wednesday – put on a clinical, no-frills performance.

The high-octane Jon Samuels on guitar provided constant flair and energy, Chelmis added texture and again didn’t shy away from the odd joke from his stool behind his pedal steel and Hartzman relished the opportunity to be somewhat of a side-kick, playing guitar for most of the set before letting loose late in the set, juggling between maracas, tambourine and even having a cameo alongside Colin Miller on drums.

Lenderman, though, embraced the spotlight. His dry, hard-hitting lyricism tied together with his volatile vocals added emotion, with fans singing along from the crowd-favourites of Knockin’ and You Have Bought Yourself A Boat early in the set, all the way to the the Southern Birds encore.

“You’re gonna get so many boots on Sunday,” one fan yelled from near the front of the stage.

“Oh yeah, we’re gonna have to do a shoey, aren’t we,” Lenderman replied, again showing how far away from home he and his band were. But both MJ Lenderman and Wednesday and Golden Plains goers alike will be feeling very much at-home at The ‘Sup with the performances that we saw at Brunswick Music Festival.