By Connor Telford
Lindsey Jordan is small, but her emotions are big- too big to be kept a secret. It’s impossible for her not to share how she’s feeling with everyone in the room. Her songwriting, guitar work, and voice all ache to be heard, which is why Jordan was understandably devastated when she was forced to postpone her 2021 tour in order to undergo vocal surgery. She wrote to fans in an iPhone note that she had polyps on her vocal cords from talking too much. Even when she’s not performing, she can’t help but share.
Jordan is fortunate that people really want to listen. Fans lined up for Snail Mail’s rescheduled set at The Columbus Athenaeum on the evening of Sunday, September 4. The crowd generally trended young enough to dress up but still old enough to drink, eager to love the music. The Athenaeum isn’t a small venue, but it is an intimate one, and if the sound hits you in just the right way, it’s easy to forget that there are other people in the room.
Fortunately, the crowd was anything but silent for all three bands. Hotline TNT opened the show with a shoegaze-centric set that was both ethereal and heavy. They were happy to let songs bleed together or take choruses for just one more loop. Each performer in the group was in sync and loose, together as a band but still relying on feeling more than simple notes and rhythms. It set the tone for a fun and reactive night.
Momma quickly took the stage after Hotline TNT exited, with very little downtime in between. They sustained the energy that Hotline TNT brought with chugging guitars and hushed vocals, acting as a bridge between Hotline TNT’s wall of sound and Snail Mail’s driving melodies. Members Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten were happy to banter with the audience, even altering their set list for a request and shouting out Etta’s best friend who was watching in a corner.
Before Snail Mail comes out, the audience can tell that this show is about love in all of its forms. The microphone stands are wrapped in rose garlands, and the band walks onstage to a cheesily romantic violin track. Lindsey Jordan is wearing loose jeans, a white tank top, and a high-sitting baseball cap. She looks like a long-lost member of The Outsiders, and she looks completely at ease. With a knowing smile, she slowly unfurls into “Heat Wave”, reminding us that her first love will always be the guitar. Before going into “Speaking Terms”, she introduces herself and her band and thanks us for going along with her rescheduled tour dates, and she really seems to mean it. Throughout the show, it is extremely apparent that Jordan is not a selfish sharer. She asks the audience how they’re doing several times, and she walks around the stage to be close to her bandmates before absentmindedly rushing to her microphone in order to sing in time. She changes guitars almost every other song as if she’s trying them on. Much like Hotline TNT, Snail Mail is extremely musically tight and talented, but it’s about feeling more than anything else.
The setlist is surprisingly varied for an album tour. Across 16 songs, only half of them are from Jordan’s newest album, Valentine. The other half is mostly from Lush, her debut, along with an EP track, a cover, and a demo of Valentine’s title track. Highlights included the aforementioned demo followed by the fully rendered version, closer “Pristine”, a swaying rendition of “Forever (Sailing)”, and a quietly stunning solo version of “Mia”. “Mia” had never fully popped for me as Valentine’s closing track, but in the Athenaeum, its beauty is impossible not to be swallowed by. Jordan wails when she really feels like it, and it cements the number as the most memorable one of the night.
If there was any kind of blemish, it was that all three acts had issues with their monitors. Momma reconfigured themselves twice to hear better, and all three acts asked for more vocals, then more guitar, then less vocals, then less guitar. Each group was tinkering throughout their set, and although this didn’t bother the audience, it did visibly bother the performers. What’s the point of having fun if the performers aren’t?
In the end, technical tweaks didn’t matter, because it was a room of love. Each group watched each other offstage, dancing and cheering each other on like they were in the audience. When Jordan began strumming the opening chords of “Pristine” to close down the night, Momma and Hotline TNT returned to the stage and joined in on percussion. Jordan greeted their additions with a smile and a laugh before doubling down on her guitar, fueled by these new sources of energy. It’s infectious.
I left the show feeling like I had just taken a hot shower, with emotions melting off of my skin. I immediately put on Snail Mail in the car, which is rare for me, because I usually don’t like to listen to musicians who I’m seeing live on the day of. But, as I hummed along to “Light Blue”, I felt myself wanting to share in Snail Mail’s luminescent world of love for just a little bit longer.
SETLIST:
1. Heat Wave
2. Speaking Terms
3. Headlock
4. Glory
5. Madonna
6. Golden Dream
7. Thinning
8. Automate
9. Ben Franklin
10. Full Control
11. Feeling Like I Do (Superdrag Cover)
12. Forever (Sailing)
13. Mia
14. Adore You (Valentine Demo)
15. Valentine
16. Pristine
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