Snail Mail's "Turkey Time" Returns to Arizona

Headliner: Snail Mail

Opener: Weekend Lovers

Genre(s): #indie #alternative #dreampop

Venue: 191 Toole, Tucson, AZ

Date: 11/9/2022

23-year old singer-songwriter-guitarist Lindsey Jordan and her band Snail Mail made their third return to Arizona in 2022 on Wednesday, Nov. 9th at 191 Toole in downtown Tucson. Previously having performed in Mesa and Phoenix this year, Snail Mail has been on a monumental touring schedule, headlining shows throughout the US and EU/UK the first half of the year, and touring with Turnstile and JPEGMAFIA since the beginning of October. I was able to attend and photograph the show for KAMP Radio, which was a wonderful opportunity that I am very grateful for.

I first found Snail Mail in 2020 and was immediately blown away by their first full album Lush, released in 2018. The band followed Lush with their second full album Valentine in late 2021. In both of these projects, Lindsey's heart-wrenching vocals, relatable lyrics, and deceptively catchy melodies culminate in a great alt-indie listening experience. Lindsey carries these great vocals into her live performances, and as a listener who knows most of her music by heart, I appreciate the subtle changes in tempo/pitch/inflection that she implements. I also attended Snail Mail's show in Mesa in April, so I was able to notice some of the changes the band had made since then. Notably, the band added a new keyboard player/guitarist, who Lindsey identified on stage as being relevant to writing the track Full Control, because of their shared conflicts with a certain romantic partner.

About halfway through the show, Lindsey wanted to give the crowd at Toole some comedic relief, and shared with us her new fun bit about "Turkey Time", which she says has yet to receive any laughs on tour. I'll let you imagine what this looks like, but I can say it involved Lindsey lying down on the stage talking about being posed like a Turkey. The bit did receive laughs at Toole, which had a great audience in attendance. I saw attendees ranging through a large span of ages from younger teenagers to older adults. The crowd at Toole actually got Lindsey to play an extra song after their set - even after she specifically said they don't do encores! Someone in the crowd yelled "Play Light Blue!" to which Lindsey originally said that probably won't happen, but after finishing their set with fan-favorite Pristine, Lindsey came back on stage and gave us a great performance of Light Blue, which she said she was only able to play by muscle-memory after not consistently performing it on tour. I was overall very satisfied with this show, and I'm so happy to have been able to see one of my favorite currently performing artists twice in the same year.

Snail Mail were also preceded by Tucson-local band Weekend Lovers, pictured below:

Reviewer Name: John Frew

Date of Review: 11/10/2022