Indie rock artist Samuel Holden Jaffe, better known by his stage name Del Water Gap, catapulted in popularity with his lyrically explosive song “Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat” in 2021. On Jan. 19, 2026, he opened his show at the sold-out 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., with a slightly different vibe from his usual work — Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO.”
As the crowd bopped in anticipation of his performance to a seemingly endless playlist of 9:30 Club’s previous headliners like Olivia Dean and The 1975, Jaffe finally popped out of the small venue’s left-wing tower. He belted out a few lines of Roan’s hit single, of course, accompanied by its viral YMCA-esque dance, before he hit the stage.
Unlike Roan’s tunes with which he opened, Jaffe’s set proved to be less upbeat and more emotionally devastating. However, as the night went on, this initial move set the tone for what the audience could expect from Jaffe that night — whimsical dance moves, booming vocals and the persistent feeling that every song sung, joke made, or sultry stare shot was just for you (well, for me, not you).
The concert, his third ever at the 9:30 Club, was part of his highly anticipated “Chasing the Chimera” tour, named after his third studio album. While it has received considerably less hype than his previous album, “I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet,” “Chasing the Chimera” holds a quiet maturity and lyrical depth that feels indicative of Jaffe’s growth as an artist.
While the album title appears elusive, Jaffe has publicly talked about its connection with the 2023 movie “La Chimera,” which he watched in the film club he runs with his grandmother (who is the subject of “Please Follow” on the album). On stage, Jaffe talked about the album’s meaning, saying it was about “reckoning with the line of satisfaction that keeps moving as you get older.” The chimera, a mythical Greek creature, represents the ever-torturous trap of grasping at the unattainable — whether that be relationships, addiction or just satisfaction with life — as Jaffe grapples with his own mortality.
On stage, Jaffe masterfully balanced the slower and heavier weight of “Chimera” with the indie-pop cult classics from his earlier albums that originally captured his audience’s attention. While the set appeared simple — a vaulted white tent and flashing light show — like much of his art, it was full of surprises, with cables pulling the fabric to arch differently throughout the night. For the jazzy “Eastside Girls,” a black and white live video of Jaffe was projected onto the screen, adding a nostalgic visual to its sultry sound.
Jaffe’s stage presence was palpable throughout the night. The power of seeing Jaffe live truly came through early in his set with “New Personality,” a song that he cautioned his 20-something audience of, saying, “this one’s about a situationship, God bless if you’re in one of those.”
On the album, the song’s quiet acoustics mask the punch of its lyrics with an understated, breathy tone. In contrast, seeing it live gave lyrics like “I wanna believe I can measure this Earth in / All the good deeds I pretend that I’ve done,” a feeling of devastation and harsh truth telling that hit hard. Jaffe’s final repeated refrains of “I could just have fun, I could just have fun,” complete with a strained desperation in his voice, brought an edge that made the words feel more like a plea than an idea. He solidified what many a college student has found out the hard way — the idea of being the chill person in a situationship is often more of a chimera than a real possibility.
Standout performances came through on “NFU” and “Beach House,” where the messy rawness of his earlier work, a strong synth and bass presence brought a viscerality to his sound. In “Beach House,” a song about the dark underbelly of a psychoactive trip on ketamine, Jaffe’s performance almost felt manic, as he jumped around the hazy purple-lit stage during a booming electric guitar solo.
Jaffe’s superpower is his ability to connect with the audience and make every song feel extremely personal. In “Coping on Unemployment,” a song from his last album that looks dead in the eye the tension of COVID-19-era relationships, lyrics like “I’m scared of turning into / A parody of myself,” dare the listener to confront hidden fears as he seemed to sing directly to each individual audience member. Lyrics like “I think your music got worse; once you got fully sober; At least now you won’t kill yourself,” felt confrontational yet almost therapeutic as the audience screamed the lyrics back.
Whether it’s the poetic lyricism and maturity of “Chasing the Chimera” or the raw viscerality and recklessness of his earlier work, Del Water Gap’s performance was absolutely mesmerizing. While Jaffe may be chasing the unattainable, he sure got close to reaching it at the 9:30 Club.
