On a brisk Monday evening between winter and spring, Washington D.C. native Jordana showed Hamden’s Space Ballroom what to look forward to when it gets warm. Jordana’s music finds a comfortable balance between indie, folk and electronica, the type of sound that summons a warm breeze through your hair. And while the breeze outside would cut right through you, Jordana’s words could too. But before the audience was unraveled by stunning pop ballads, 2010s indie darlings the booyah! Kids.

The electronic bedroom that dominated 2018 and 2019 was in some part forged in the rooms of the booyah! kids, who played a bit of their older stuff toward the back of the set, but made sure to put their new project at the forefront.

“Paralyzed” showed a lot of artistic maturity through the eight years since their debut. There’s much less vocal distortion and a larger focus on maximalist production. Lead singer Emma Lee has such a distinct, yet fun voice, and Jordana frequently commented on how rad her dance moves were.

After the crowd roared for the booyah! kids, they all settled for the start of the next set. Jordana and her band rolled out and she didn’t skip a beat before riffing with the crowd. This would be a theme all night, with Jordana and the band making fun of each other, the audience and discussing random topics on a whim. It made the show feel more intimate than even Space Ballroom could provide.

In all honesty, I wasn’t familiar with most of her music before this show. I found her the way most people did, from her 2021 collaboration project with TV Girl, “Summer’s Over.” However, as Jordana began her set, the songs from 2024’s “Lively Premonitions” and 2025’s “Jordanaland” impressed me thoroughly.

“Blouse” from “Jordanaland” was a sad breakup song, but it fit in well with where it landed in the setlist. The electronic elements of this song actually reminded me a lot of the new stuff from the booyah! kids. Turns out my intuition was correct when we learned Aidan Ludlam from the band helped produce Jordana’s album! The musicality of it was bouncy and fun, which made it easy to dance to in the moment.

The setlist immediately took a vibe shift toward the funky “Raver Girl” from “Lively Premonition.” Jordana could clearly tell the room needed a resuscitation after three heartbreakers, and this one ended up being one of my favorites of the night. The rolling synths gave the song an irrefutable groove, and armed with the best bassline from anything else I heard that night, it made for a special moment.

Jordana pivoted to the title track from “Summer’s Over,” much to the elation of the audience. The feel of the song is more laid back than the funk banger played previously, but the energy carried over just the same. Most of the room actually knew the words for this one, which made the chorus of the crowd hit that much harder. It was a song that simultaneously makes me nostalgic, but also incredibly excited for the summer around the corner.

The band blessed the audience with two covers as well. While we missed “You Get What You Give” by the New Radicals, which had been a staple of her set previously, I was overjoyed to hear both “Amber” by 311 and “Peg” by Steely Dan.

In honest, I was significantly more excited for the latter, since it’s been one of my most listened-to songs in the past two months. I was even more excited to hear it was their first time ever playing it live. Even though it kind of unraveled toward the end, it was a great first go-around.

While most artists will bring up the New Haven pizza debate at shows in Connecticut, Jordana opted to argue about Shrek. For nearly five minutes the whole venue shot hands in the air and debated about which movie is the best. Jordana’s take that “Shrek Forever After” was the best was pretty unpopular in a crowd full of “Shrek 2” truthers. Between this heated debate and Jordana’s funny faces among other hilarious one-liners, these moments helped cement her as one of my new favorite personalities in music.

The show came to a close the only way it could, with “Better in the Dark.” It’s her biggest song by over 200,000 streams, and for good reason. This song was really the whole reason I decided to throw my hat in for this show, and while I probably prefer the studio version, getting familiar with the rest of her catalog made the choice well worth it.

If the band is in your city, make sure to pay Jordanaland a visit.