Snail Mail Reclaims the Stage
By Sarah Fournell
As I entered the Royale, the crowd was surprisingly stagnant, despite the fact that opening act Joy Again had already taken the stage. Lead singer Sachi DiSerafino seemed to take notice of the lack of enthusiasm by asking “Does anyone know who we are?” A dull roar rose from the crowd in response. DiSerafino then summarized the overall shared sentiment with an overheard bathroom stall conversation, wherein a concertgoer said “I only really know one of their songs.” However there was a devout group of fans stationed stage left who the band frequently appealed to with cheeky duets and a handful of guitar picks.
Most of their songs were sonically similar, linked by a tinny guitar and singer Aurthur Shea’s goblin-esque voice. They had a great chemistry, and were undoubtedly great friends, which showed in their showmanship. However, it was testament to the performance when the track that garnered the most movement from the audience was a cover of the band Lit’s most popular song. I guess in a sense, they were their “Own Worst Enemy.” They followed the cover with their most popular hit, “Looking Out For You” which was popular in 2016 on Tumblr and blew up again recently on TikTok. However, the charm of the track fell short in its live rendition, which felt rough and discordant compared to the warm, almost tv-static buzzy feeling that the recorded track provides. With a set nearly as long as Snail Mail’s, Joy Again left a stage ready for the taking.
Lindsey Jordan (she/her), the lead singer and mastermind behind Snail Mail, approached the stage almost timidly, as if she was uncertain of her ability to enchant the audience. Boston was the fourth stop on the tour, so the band was still ironing out the kinks from three years off the stage. Despite their wavering confidence towards the beginning, they were quick to capture the hearts of the audience. Through affectionate interactions with the front of the crowd, and giggles to remedy the otherwise awkwardness of forgetting the lyrics, Jordan created an extremely friendly environment. She was shocked by how reactive the crowd was, gaping wide and exclaiming “this is a great crowd!” as every lyric to every song was screamed back at her by adoring fans.
However, I was unfortunately situated in front of an obnoxious couple who gave loud and unwarranted commentary on absolutely everything throughout the performance. They whined over the music about how “boring these songs are” and how they “only came for Pristine,” which one of them excitedly mimicked every guitar note to, seemingly to prove she knew the song. Refer to Izzy’s concert etiquette article to avoid being like them. Despite their incessant rudeness, the joy of the night prevailed!
Opening up with lead singles “Valentine” and “Ben Franklin” from their latest album Valentine the band welcomed audiences to their sonically new era. The songs lacked quality towards the start, as they tried to find their footing on stage. As they started to get familiar with the venue, the live renditions easily superseded studio recordings. Jordan’s voice live is just as wonderful as it is on her albums,with her signature nasally croon still intact after vocal cord surgery.
The audience’s excitement in the middle of the set during “Heat Wave” off of breakthrough album Lush was so explosive, a passerby could’ve safely assumed it was the grand finale. There was absolutely no cooling down from the buzz from the track and the dance floor pulsed even during slower songs like “Automate” and “Light Blue.” Jordan herself joined in the dancing with hand motions such as a jazzy rendition of the Sign of the Cross during “Madonna.”A smashing cover of “Tonight, Tonight” by the Smashing Pumpkins was met with a sea of bobbing bleached and buzzed heads thrashing to the beat. “Forever (Sailing)” ended the show as Jordan soothed the crowd back to a steady sway. However the calm was quickly dispelled again with a fake out encore of fan-favorite “Pristine.” Jordan only playing the opening bars of the track then switching to “Mia” enabled the aforementioned obnoxious couple behind me to exclaim “I hate her!” However, they were met with several glares from other concertgoers, myself included, as they jabbed over Jordan’s deeply vulnerable solo performance of “Mia.” She then ended the set by jovially introducing “A new song that I’m nervous to play live” and finally moving into “Pristine.”
Valentine, an album that fell flat for many, including our own Izzy Desmarais, truly did the opposite live. The vulnerability of presenting deeply intimate lyrics live is no small feat, and Jordan truly bared her soul out on stage.