Snail Mail Show Review

By Mike Stringham

On Friday, November 30^thI saw Snail Mail at White Eagle Hall. This was my second time seeing the band in the last few months, seeing them open for Alvvays at Warsaw in late September. It was 30 degrees out that night and I couldn’t find parking for a half hour, until I finally did. Walking to the line I saw some old friends which was nice! Of course I missed the opener, since I came straight from work.

Snail Mail went on at about 9:30 for their headlining set. During the first song there were issues with frontwoman Lindsey Jordan’s in-ear monitors, causing her to say “I wish this was an act, but it’s not”. She also went on to say this was the first night that she had used in-ear monitors. Stopping after the first song or two to make sure the IEMs were working, which was making her seemingly upset about it (who wouldn’t be?).

After getting the kinks out, they put on a wonderful set spanning their two works of music. With fans talking so loudly in between songs, it made me feel so weird. I wrote about this in my Alvvays show review about Snail Mail’s performance too. It’s as if there is a need for a transitioning in between songs or a loop to fill the empty space between tuning/preparing for the next song. Besides those two issues, I think the show went really well and the fans were loving it as much as Lindsey was.

To finish the set, Lindsey played two acoustic songs and then the band came out for two more songs. I usually take notes during the shows I’m going to review, so I took note of the fact that there are so many awesome female fronted bands right now, including Snail Mail’s album, Lush– which is on many people’s end of year album lists. There’s my favorite of the bunch Soccer Mommy who put out an incredible album this year (Clean), Lucy Dacus putting out a well-received album (Historian), and the super-group comprised of all female members: Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus putting out an incredible self-titled EP as well. It should be noted that both Bridgers (Stranger in the Alps) and Baker (Turn Out The Lights) put out awesome albums last year as well. All of these albums were released on Matador Records, besides Bridgers’ album which was released on Dead Oceans.

Once can say that I am very excited about all of these artists and bands and look forward to seeing them all play live again and release new music. I’m excited that all of these bands are female fronted and are being noticed as artists that are truly talented as well. Check out the links below for all the artists/bands that I mentioned and see y’all on the next show I review.

 

Links for music I mentioned

Alvvays: https://alvvays.bandcamp.com/

Snail Mail – Lush: https://snailmaillush.bandcamp.com/

Soccer Mommy – Clean:https://sopharela.bandcamp.com/album/clean

Lucy Dacus – Historian: https://soundcloud.com/lucydacus/sets/historian-1

Boygenius – Boygenius: https://soundcloud.com/julien-baker-official/sets/boygenius-1

Phoebe Bridgers – Stranger in the Alps: https://phoebebridgers.bandcamp.com/album/stranger-in-the-alps

Julien Baker – Turn Out The Lights: https://julienbaker.bandcamp.com/album/turn-out-the-lights