Snail Mail
-GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER-
A warm summer’s evening walk to Gullivers tonight, as Snail Mail play their first ever gig in Manchester. The small venue from the outside, makes you question if you’re at the right place, surely the gig isn’t here? But once you walk through that door, the pub becomes a Tardis. The trendy and modern music venue greets you with a short bar, across from a few booths, candle lit, and a flower.
After grabbing a bottle of beer, we make our way up the stairs to the stage, which is located in what looks a very old-fashioned ballroom scene, with chandeliers on the ceiling. The gig is sold out and looking around, the capacity must only be 150. The room is crammed full, and with no announcement or much buildup, Lindsey Jordan and the band make their way on stage from the front row.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, guitar tuning and lack of stage presence, the band open with one of their most recent singles, ‘Heat Wave’. Instantaneously, the whole room is captivated by the talent on stage, Lindsey Jordan showcasing her phenomenal voice and talented, intricate guitar playing.
With not much crowd interaction, apart from the humbled and polite “thank you” in between each song, the evening becomes a showcase of the pure talent which is Snail Mail. Halfway through the set, whilst Lindsey continues to perform a beautiful improvised guitar riff, the rest of the band make their way off the stage and out the back.
On one of few occasions that Lindsey does converse, she makes sure to thank the sound technicians, the venue and all the fans for making it a great night. She then goes on to say, “trust me it’s not like this everywhere we go”.
With the ridiculously talented 19-year-old under the spotlight in a very intimate venue, the whole room is stunned into silence as she performs one of her very first songs, ‘Stick’. The five-and-a-half-minute song only hypnotizes the crowd more the longer it goes on.
The night does seem to end somewhat abruptly as Lindsey Jordan soon shoots off the stage, presumably to catch up with the band. However, the night has been unbelievable.
The venue felt unfairly small, I couldn’t help but think this would sound incredible in a bigger venue, but that is purely because Snail Mail might just be the best young talents breaking onto the music scene right now. We might be seeing this band in the media eye a lot more in the future.
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