bands’ prolific FRONT-PEOPLE embarked on five-show West Coast run as an acoustic duo

From non-stop touring to putting out one of this year’s best albums, it’s been a busy time for Asheville musicians Karly Hartzman and Jake Lenderman, the couple behind two of the most buzzed-about bands in contemporary indie rock. To bookend 2023, the singer-songwriters drove up the West Coast, performing scaled-back sets to sold-out yet intimate crowds, starting in Los Angeles.

Supporting Hartzman and Lenderman was Philly-based musician Dan Wriggins, whose pensive songwriting evokes a distinctively blue-collar perspective similar to that of Wednesday and MJ Lenderman. Armed with his acoustic guitar and harmonica, Wriggins crooned poignant folk songs that poetically and simplistically captured the heartache and minutiae of life under late-stage capitalism. Melancholic and poetic, his songs are imbued with nostalgia and timelessness, relatable to the point that everyone within earshot reverently listened to his storytelling.

Even without a band behind them, Hartzman and Lenderman were as beguiling as ever. Congenial in demeanor and unpretentious in their banter and humor, their presence ushered in a collective warmth that made the tightly packed room feel more like a house show in your hometown than a sold-out LA gig. They played selections from their most recent records, including “Chosen To Deserve” from Wednesday’s Rat Saw God and “Hangover Game” off of Lenderman’s Boat Songs–two songs that are just as sweepingly lovely with a full band as they are as humble solos.

A rarer treat, the duo also performed songs from their 2021 EP Guttering, like the tenderly heart-wrenching “My Voice Is a Little Horse” (unfortunately nothing from How Do You Let the Love Into the Heart That Isn’t Split Wide Open, but there’s only so much time in a set). Their chemistry is so palpable, it could make you fall in love with their love–the way they look at each other is imbued with the same kind of pure magic as the music they make together.

The finale came in the form of “Bull Believer,” the epic and utterly destroying first single from Rat Saw God. Hartzman’s closing screams penetrated the room with a profound and empathetic pain–a release of energy both heartbreaking and fiercely powerful, and a testament to her and Lenderman’s prowess. Their songwriting possesses a versatility and vulnerability that capture a feeling like lightning bugs in a jar, shining like sharing something special and secret with dear, lifelong friends.