Hi Snail Mail/Lindsey Jordan,
It’s me, the girl in the grey hat from the photo pit who was yawning repeatedly during your show at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on May 5. In case you saw me, I want to take this opportunity to apologize. Your performance was nothing short of inspired; I am just so fucking tired all the time.
In my defense (exactly what you want to hear in an apology), at 34 years old, my bedtime is closer to what it was when I was 7 years old than it was at 27. Y’all are young, you’re still energetic, and I envy your ability to jump around on stage without missing a note as I drag my weary feet across a sticky venue floor calculating in the back of my mind how long I’ll be able to sleep if I get home at 11 p.m. or midnight.
To be fair (again, I’m aware this is bad phrasing for an apology), your new album has become what I turn to in order to help me relax. There’s a quality to these new tracks — so many of which y’all played to my absolute delight — that’s as hypnotizing live as recorded. So now when I hear the opening notes to a song like “Cruise,” my eyelids can’t help but drop just a little. It’s a Pavlovian response.
I just want it on the record that I enjoyed myself greatly, and I know I wasn’t the only one. There’s admittedly something rejuvenating about seeing kids in the front row scream-singing along without a care in the world about how the bags under their eyes are going to come across on a Teams call the following morning.
Now that I’ve laid out all my excuses, I’d just like to note that the yawning wasn’t a sign of boredom; it’s that while I am physically an adult woman, I am spiritually the Sleepy Time Tea bear. Should you come back to Sacramento again, I promise I’ll try to time my caffeine intake better.
Your most exhausted fan,
Alisha Kirby
