DC9’s 20th Anniversary Showcase (2/13/2024)

By: Gauri Girirajan

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, indie rock act Snail Mail was joined by local bands Birthday Girl and Flowers for the Dead in a sold-out 20th-anniversary celebration at the DC9 nightclub. The timing was apt, almost on the nose, considering the title and content of Snail Mail’s sophomore project, "Valentine". But what better time to scream along to a collection of devastating, sweet, and resentful love songs with a room full of strangers?

I had taken the green line with Ruwaida (our photographer for the night) and Guin (the roommate of the bassist in Flowers for the Dead) to get to the venue. As we made our way up to the space, one of the DC9 staff was more than excited to give Ruwaida her press pass. “We’re all college radio heads here,” she said warmly, explaining her past as the manager for a local university’s station. The communal love for the DMV music scene and the venue could be strongly felt in the room. While the fact that the show sold out in under five minutes was a testament to the presence of devoted Snail Mail fans, the tiny room was filled to its 250-person capacity with a diverse mix of people who were just as happy to headbang to the College Park-loved Flowers for the Dead and DC newcomers Birthday Girl.

The size of the space meant that the first act of the night, Flowers for the Dead, was nervously waiting with some friends in the back by the bar. Guin gave her roommate a hug for luck, and then the three-piece 90s-inspired alt-rock band awkwardly pushed their way to the stage. As the crowd hushed and the lighting changed, Flowers for the Dead eased right into it with “At All,” one of the more subdued songs from their 2022 album "Quiet Corrosion in the Dancing Hall". Clearly seasoned performers, they played every song without a hitch. The shoegaze-y and grunge-inspired songs often started soft, allowing the tension to build until they burst into a wall of noise that felt both outrageously uncontained and impressively intentional. Just when the sheer volume threatened to lose you, the tempo switched, the key changed, the noise disappeared, and every idea you had started to form about what kind of band they were dissipated. Flowers for the Dead sure knew how to keep your attention. Not everyone in the room was convinced (“It was really loud,” a guy next to me shrugged), but that didn’t matter to those who had let themselves get swept away, and it certainly didn’t matter to the band, grinning at each other as they played, with the mutual understanding that they had absolutely crushed it.

After a nervous but bubbly performance by Birthday Girl, the members of Snail Mail pushed their way through the small crowd to get to the stage, including one Lindsey Jordan wearing a “Proud Hater” t-shirt complementing her spiky, cropped hair. In that moment, it was hard to believe that she was an indie rock darling, with over half a million Spotify monthly listeners. On the DC9 stage, Jordan and her bandmates were just a trio from Ellicott City, ready to play a set filled with heartache and declaration. Snail Mail catapulted to fame in 2018 with “Pristine,” an insecure yet self-assured confession of unrequited love via precise riffs and apathetic vocals. Her debut album, "Lush", was a collection of angsty rock songs with a disarming honesty that came to define Jordan’s lyrical style. The music should have been devastating, but Snail Mail refused to let you drown in the self-deprecation and shame of heartbreak. “Don’t you like me for me?” she asks simply, without waiting for an answer. As Jordan played through the songs from "Lush", they hardly felt like hers anymore. There was no trace of the girl who once cried during her sets. Instead, the singer was raring to go, smiling at the crowd in front of her and laughing with her bandmates as if she couldn’t believe they were back on this stage, almost a decade after the last time they’d played DC9. Jordan shrugged and grinned through problems with her earpiece and an off-putting reverb that wouldn’t quiet during the softest and most intimate part of her set (the crushing pain of a breakup delivered through a heartfelt ballad).

Snail Mail’s second album "Valentine" upped the musical and lyrical complexity while maintaining the emotional vulnerability established in "Lush". It’s a testament to the power of catharsis that Jordan’s angriest, saddest, and most toxic feelings drew the loudest responses from the crowd. On her title track, “Valentine,” the story of a toxic relationship slowly builds until she finally lets out an angry guttural cry in the refrain ("So why'd you wanna erase me?..."), slowly softening into a bittersweet endearment ("...darling valentine"). "You always know where to find me," she screams again, "when you change your mind." It's not a pretty sentiment, but Jordan refuses to let you make her feel bad about it.

The set started to drag towards the end with the band waiting until the very end to play all of their most popular songs. The energy in the room visibly picked up again during the encore when the band played the opening chords of “Pristine.” With every increasingly anguished question posed in the song (“Who do you change for?” "Who’s top of your world?” "Who’s your type of girl?”), the crowd’s reaction intensified and built with desperation. I spent the majority of Snail Mail’s set observing a girl across the room from me standing directly in front of Jordan gazing up at her in rapture. She sang along to every word as if she had found the answer to the ultimate question asked in “Pristine”: “Is there any better feeling than coming clean?”