Samia performs at 9:30 Club on Feb. 7, 2023. (Photo by Katie Child)
Ethereal and alluring, Samia brought her simultaneous punk and enchantment to DC’s 9:30 Club to turn a recent weeknight from commonplace to glittery.
At 26-years-old and already having released two studio albums and an EP, Samia Finnerty, professionally known simply as Samia, is on her third headlining tour, and absolutely killed it on her DC stop on Feb. 7.
This performance was only her second of 33 shows she has planned throughout the tour, and Samia was supported by Tommy Lefroy. The audience was ecstatic by the time she reached the stage, which was delicately lit with candles and drowned in an atmosphere of warmth and opulence. The chemistry was felt throughout the room, and to say the show was intimate would be an understatement.
While Samia of course has her wonderfully slow songs in which she plucks with care at her audiences’ heartstrings, she also has her contrasting pieces, which often leave her fans passionately bouncing around in dance. One of my favorite songs off of Samia’s set was a blend of the two. There’s one line in the song which fans screamed louder than I could have imagined, and because I had never listened to the song before, it caught me by surprise, but left me smiling. “Kill Her Freak Out” was that song. An incredible opener for the show, the ballad starts slow and feels like a sad story, but irrupts into a gut wrenching, lyric-screaming profession of emotion, which left fans achingly clutching their chests.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, songs like “Fit N Full” and “Triptych” had Samia jumping around the stage so energetically that she had to first hang her microphone back on the stand. The energy was unmatched, and the ease with which she switched moods from song to song proved just how thoroughly she entranced her audience.
Stream Samia’s top tracks on Spotify:
Her setlist went as follows:
- Kill Her Freak Out
- Fit N Full
- Charm You
- Big Wheel
- Pink Balloon
- To Me It Was
- Pool
- Sea Lions
- Mad at me
- Stellate
- As You Are
- Triptych
- Breathing Song
- Honey
- Winnebago
- Amelia
- Is There Something in the Movies
- Dream Song (with Tommy Lefroy)
- You Shook Me All Night Long (AC/DC cover)
- Show Up
Make sure to follow Samia on Instagram to stay up to date on her tour endeavors; and check out her website to see if she’s coming to a city near you.
See some more photos of Samia at the 9:30 Club on Feb. 7, 2023. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Katie Child.
