Snail Mail at the Electric Ballroom

Snail Mail

Unflirt

Electric Ballroom, 26 June 2026

I've been a fan since Snail Mail released their first album Lush back in 2018, so I braved the ungodly heatwave and at long last I finally got to see the ever-so-cool Lindsey Jordan and her band live at a truly storming show in the beautifully air-conditioned Electric Ballroom last night.

I've been meaning to see Snail Mail for so long that when the dates were announced for these London shows I pounced on them. I originally had a ticket for the Thursday night too but had to sell it, although given the heatwave I'm not sure if I could have done two nights in a row. In fact when I turned up to queue a little later than I normally would have, I was surprised and relieved to see fewer people than usual and thankfully the heat was bearable although it was glorious to finally get into the cool of the Electric Ballroom.

Next to me at the barrier were a group of girls who I assumed were there because they loved Snail Mail but it quickly became apparent that it was the support act who they were here to see and they were so excited. When Christine Senorin aka Unflirt, a singer-songwriter from London, walked on stage looking like a model with her short hair and short shorts, I could see why: she already seemed every inch a pop star.

Backed with just a drummer and a guitarist, Senorin began her set by grabbing the microphone and began singing in a very girly, sugar-sweet voice. It's dreamy pop music not a million miles away from what  beabadoobee is doing, which makes sense as they are good friends apparently and I even see a photo after that showed she was there in the crowd supporting her friend, which was nice.

She began singing a jangly and melodic song called Someday, featuring her breathy vocals, that felt like something The Sundays may have recorded back in the early 1990s.

It was clear then that so many around me were here just to see her perform, as they sang along to her song Shame, which had a classic pop feel, while Senorin obviously had great stage presence. I thought she seemed even cooler when she started playing guitar and the songs felt fuller too.

She's been described as a mixture of lo-fi bedroom pop and shoegaze, but I thought she sounded much more pristine and polished than that. It was clear though that she had she major fans and her whole set was being professionally filmed. 

I think her last song, Sea Song, must be one of her most popular as it received a particularly good reception, with the pop girlies all singing along and getting big smiles from Senorin (who wouldn't be charmed by seeing your music being so beloved), and to me it sounded like something I would hear on the radio, with sugary vocals and a Olivia Rodrigo vibe. She is clearly destined for bigger things although I don't know how fitting she was for the Snail Mail audience as most of the Unflirt faithful seemed to vacate the front row once her set had finished (although she was at the merch table so maybe they all rushed to meet her!). 

I think I was worried about going to see Snail Mail before as, particularly when her first record came out, she was so young. It made me anxious that I might be the oldest person there if I went to see her live. Fortunately, that wasn't the case and there was a nice range of ages here to see her tonight so I didn't feel so out of place. It makes sense because so much of her music sounds rooted in the 90s and there is something about her that reminds me of Juliana Hatfield: not her voice obviously, but the sound and feel of her music.

Snail Mail (which is essentially Jordan's solo project but is also a band) of course played the night before and I was informed that they rarely deviate from the setlist, but sometimes when it's two shows in a row in the same city the second night can surprise you, that certainly was the case with the Rilo Kiley shows earlier this month, so I had high hopes.

Jordan ran onto the stage looking like a cool kid from an 80s movie, wearing wide leg jean shorts and a cropped sweatshirt emblazoned with the numbers "77", with a big smile she launched into the first track on the new album, Ricochet, the shimmering rock of Tractor Beam. I must admit the guitar riff for this reminds me so much of that Presidents Of The United States hit from the 90s, Peaches, but I kind of doubt Jordan is familiar with that track. Her song is way more affecting and bittersweet and it sounded great live and Jordan obviously has great chemistry with her four piece band, consisting of Ray Brown on drums (hidden behind a big plastic drum shield), Alex Russell on bass, Ian Eylanbekov on guitar and, hidden away at the back the only other girl in the band, Isadora Knutsen, playing keyboards, guitar and even cello.

Bringing out her acoustic guitar, Jordan then launched into the soaring My Maker, which of course is track two on Ricochet, making it quite clear this show was all about the new record. That was more than fine with me as I love the new album, and in fact they played all 11 songs from it throughout the show.

Every single song got a different guitar, honestly I was so impressed with the variety she had, from a classic Fender Stratocaster, moving onto a snazzy blue Jazzmaster, a red Gibson SG, a black Rickenbacker, a red Telecaster and of course the acoustic. There may have been more but those are the ones I remember. It definitely worked though as the sound was fantastic and each song really did have a different vibe.

I did wonder whether she would play anything from her debut album, Lush, but I was pleasantly surprised when she started to play, suitably enough, Heat Wave, (pleasingly, she also went on to play Pristine and Speaking Terms from that record) which really showed off just what a fantastic voice Jordan has: slightly husky and highly emotive. It's interesting hearing the older tunes since she had a vocal surgery back in 2021, as she has a new tone to her voice and crazily more range now. It's also fun to watch her play guitar, as I love watching girls shred and teach the boys a few things.

Another highlight for me came halfway through when she played Dead End, with its definite 90s feel guitar riff, I could definitely hear Juliana Hatfield play this one, and it built beautifully into a grungy finale.

Agony Freak, meanwhile, had that cool, mechanical guitar riff (provided by the aforementioned Telecaster) which is apparently inspired by nu-metal but to me has a post-punk vibe but is also one of the most catchy tunes on the new record. 

My absolute favourite moment came though when she started to play Glory from her second album Valentine. I used to play this song on repeat when the record came out and it seemed to take on a new life live, the track feeling even more full of tension and emotion and the guitars even more fierce and fuzzy. What a thrill it was to finally hear it live as I really didn't expect to (even though she has been regularly playing it, I hadn't actually checked the set list), particularly as she didn't include too much from the excellent Valentine.  

The last few songs were all absolute bangers, as she screamed out the chorus of the passionate Valentine, the lights going crazy reflecting the music. She told us that Reverie was her favourite song from the new record and it has a more sweeping 60s pop feel, with Knutsen providing some baroque sounding keyboard florishes. 

The beautiful Light On Our Feet once again benefited from Knutsen's musical skills, this time on the cello, and had an almost Smashing Pumpkins feel, in their gentler moments. The final song of the main set, the title track of Ricochet, was also a quieter tune, performed by just Jordan on a clean-sounding guitar and Knutsen embellishing it with her cello and backing vocals. 

After a very brief exit from the stage, Jordan returned with the whole band for the encore, which turned out to be the jangly indie goodness of Thinning from the Habits EP (and Jordan back on her trusty Jazzmaster), the crowd happily singing along to this old favourite.

But the magical moment came when Jordan acknowledged a sign that a girl at the front was holding up, asking her to play the Valentine song Automate. We had seen this fan in the queue and her sign was really nicely done: she had even included a little drawing of a snail on it, but we had wondered if Jordan and her band would play it given the set list appeared to be pretty rigid. Thankfully that wasn't the case and Jordan said she had seen the sign and was going to try playing it but given she hadn't played it in a while might be a little shaky (indeed apparently it has only been played one other time this year). I'm happy to say it didn't sound shaky at all and she played the angular guitar riff and quickly got into the swing of things with the more raw punky chorus, before changing at the more dreamy ending. The whole time I could hear the girl and her friends singing along, overjoyed their dream had come true. At the end Jordan shouted out her band for remembering how to play the song and said she loved Automate too.

They got back to the setlist for the final song, the joyful sounding Pristine and surprisingly for a newer track, a lot of people were singing along, making it a brilliantly rousing finale.

At the end Jordan grabbed some guitar picks and ran to the front of the stage and leaned over, giving one each to the two hijab-wearing teenage girls next to me (who were really sweet I must say) and they were absolutely overjoyed, jumping up and down with delight (especially as Jordan made sure each got one) it was so lovely to see and they excitedly showed me the guitar picks after. So nice!

Thanks to that special moment and the addition of that one song request, I was so thankful I came to the second night and finally got to see Snail Mail live. She really is an incredible talent, so full of joy and she and her band put on one hell of a show.