Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan has announced that an ongoing struggle with her vocal health has reached a breaking point that must be rectified with vocal cord surgery in order to prevent permanent damage.
Snail Mail was set to kick off a North American tour later this week with a show at Richmond, Virginia’s the National. The remaining 2021 dates, branching into early 2022, have been rescheduled to late next summer. The U.S. leg of the tour will instead begin in Philadelphia on April 5 after the singer has properly recovered.
The 2022 European tour dates originally scheduled for February and March of next year are currently in the process of being rescheduled with new dates to come soon.
In a statement, Jordan shared: “I’ve been struggling with my vocal health more and more each year. I lose my voice after a couple of days of singing. I went to see an ENT last week and they found massive polyps in my vocal cords (surprisingly from vocal trauma due to talking!! shocker lol) that need to be operated on to prevent permanent damage to my voice. The recovery time is three months/speech therapy and in an effort to make sure the rest of the tour can happen.”
The tour was scheduled as Snail Mail’s first time back on the road following shows in support of her groundbreaking 2018 debut album Lush, this time offering up performances of songs from her recently released follow-up Valentine.
“At some point, I realized that my IRL person was suffering because of having to be an internet person. I just wanted to work on my IRL person,” Jordan told Rolling Stone. “I don’t necessarily think it’s good for my mental health. I would rather just do my thing — make the music, put it out there, and play the shows.”
Snail Mail Tour Dates
April 5 – Philadelphia PA @ Union Transfer
April 6 – Philadelphia PA @ Union Transfer
April 7 – Brooklyn NY @ Kings Theatre
April 8 – Boston MA @ Royale
April 9 – Montreal QC @ Club Soda
April 11 – Toronto ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
April 12 – Cleveland OH @ Agora Theatre
April 14 – Chicago IL @ Riviera Theatre
April 15 – Minneapolis MN @ First Avenue
April 16 – Lawrence KS @ Liberty Hall
April 17 – Denver CO @ Ogden Theater
April 19 – Olympia, WA @ Capitol Theater
April 20 – Seattle WA @ Moore Theatre
April 21 – Vancouver BC @ Vogue Theatre
April 22 – Portland OR @ Wonder Ballroom
April 23 – Portland OR @ Wonder Ballroom
April 24 – Oakland CA @ Fox Theater
April 27 – Los Angeles CA @ Hollywood Palladium
April 28 – San Diego CA @ The Observatory North Park
April 29 – Mesa AZ @ The Nile
April 30 – Santa Fe NM @ Meow Wolf
May 2 – Austin TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater
May 3 – Dallas TX @The Factory Studio
May 5 – Atlanta GA @ The Masquerade – Heaven Stage
May 6 – Asheville NC @ The Orange Peel
May 7 – Carrboro NC @ Cat’s Cradle
May 8 – Nashville TN @ Brooklyn Bowl – Nashville
August 12 – Providence, RI @ Fete Music Hall
August 16 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place
August 17 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Stone Pony
August 19 – Richmond, VA @ The National
August 20 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
August 21 – Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
August 23 – Orlando, FL @ The Beacham Theater
August 24 – Tampa FL @ The Ritz Ybor
August 26 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
August 27 – Knoxville,TN @ The Mill & Mine
August 28 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall
August 30 – Bloomington, IL @ The Castle Theatre
August 31 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
September 2 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
September 3 – St Louis, MO @ The Pageant
September 4 – Columbus, OH @ The Athenaeum Theatre
September 6 – Detroit ,MI @ Majestic Theatre
September 7 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
September 9 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
NEWS
Placebo have kicked off their 30th anniversary tour by dusting off some tracks for the first time in over 20 years, and also playing new single ‘Helen Keller’ live for the first time.
The new dates come as the band are celebrating the 30 years since they dropped their 1996 debut album. To mark the occasion, they have announced a huge UK and European arena tour, where they have vowed to predominantly play material from their first album and their sophomore record ‘Without You I’m Nothing’.
At the opening night at Krakatoa in Mérignac, France, Brian Molko and co. delivered a stacked 19-song set, which began with ‘Pure Morning’, and immediately went into the first rendition of ‘Come Home’ in 20 years.
Another rarity came straight after, with the first live performance of ‘You Don’t Care About Us’ since 2001, as well as ‘Without You I’m Nothing’ and ‘Allergic (To Thoughts Of Mother Earth)’ which were played for the first time since 2018 and 2014 respectively.
‘Drowning by Numbers’, ‘Bruise Pristine’ and ‘My Sweet Prince’ were all introduced into the setlist for the first time since 2001, ‘Brick Shithouse’ was aired out for the first time since 2003, ‘Scared Of Girls’ was played for the first time since 2010, and both ‘Lady Of The Flowers’ and ‘36 Degrees’ were broken out for the first time in nine years.
The rest of the set was made up of ‘Teenage Angst’, ‘Bionic’, ‘I Know’ and ‘Every You Every Me’, and the band wrapped up the performance with two covers: Depeche Mode’s ‘I Feel You’, and Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’.
It wasn’t until a later show at the Super Bock Arena in Porto, Portugal, that Placebo broke out their new song ‘Helen Keller’ for the first time – playing it 13 songs into the setlist.
Check out more footage from the tour so far below, as well as the setlist from night one.
‘Pure Morning’
‘Come Home’ (First time since 2006)
‘You Don’t Care About Us'(First Time Since 2001)
‘Teenage Angst’
‘Bionic’
‘Without You I’m Nothing” (First Time Since 2018)
‘Allergic (to Thoughts of Mother Earth)” (First Time Since 2014)
‘Drowning by Numbers” (First Time Since 2001)
’36 Degrees” (Alternate Version – First Time Since 2017)
‘I Know’
‘Brick Shithouse’ (First Time Since 2003)
‘Scared of Girls’ (First Time Since 2010)
‘Bruise Pristine” (First Time Since 2001)
‘My Sweet Prince’ (First Time Since 2001)
‘Lady of the Flowers’ (First time since 2017)
‘Nancy Boy’
‘Every You Every Me’
‘I Feel You’ (Depeche Mode cover, live debut)
‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ (Kate Bush cover)
Placebo dropped the single ‘Helen Keller’ on September 28, and it sees them reach back to ‘H.K. Farewell’, a hidden instrumental from the era of their self-titled 1996 debut. In the track, they retain the eerie keyboard melody from the original, and push it to new dimensions with a heavier, more anguished feeling.
The title refers to the American author, who was also a disability rights advocate and political activist, who became deafblind as a young child and went on to become an internationally renowned writer and campaigner.
As well as the tour, Placebo also celebrated the 30th anniversary of their debut by releasing a reimagined version of the record. For the LP, Molko and Stefan Olsdal returned to the original master tapes and reworked all 10 songs from the 1996 record – describing it as a “director’s cut” that helped them inject the original songs with three decades more experience.
The ongoing tour will reach the UK and Ireland in late November and early December, where they will play Nottingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester, London and Cardiff. See all the dates here and find any remaining tickets here.
Dates will head to Latin America in 2027, beginning in São Paulo on February 20 and running through Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia before wrapping up with shows in Guadalajara and Monterrey in March.
Placebo dropped their last album of new material in 2022, with ‘Never Let Me Go’. That record was given a four-star review by NME, which described it as “a renaissance rock record with an experimental edge”, adding that it found Placebo “inspired and ready for a new era”.
