The five members of Sweet93 quietly set up their instruments in a relaxed room of 20 or so people. A few songs in and the gathering was fixated on the band’s frontwoman, who simply goes by Chloe. Despite the large puffer jacket masking her face, her vocals left the room mesmerized.

Quietly operating in intimate shows in New York, Sweet93 has been building a cult following in the shadows of the Empire State. Now they’ve joined Aaron Maine’s Porches for his “Shirt” tour.

Chloe and her band don’t classify as your normal up-and-coming indie artists. Their sound isn’t just a cheap imitation of its influences, but a modern embodiment of acts like Mazzy Star, Slowdive, and Lush. That is, in part, due to Chloe’s feelings about the ‘90s.

“There’s so [many] similarities to right now in the ’90s, in my opinion,” said Chloe. “What I love the most about ’90s is it’s like ’90s soft rock or ’90s alternative because I feel like that incorporates anything from Radiohead to shoegaze to dream pop.”

For the singer, those songs and artists bring an energy and an essence that she believes music fans haven’t seen in a long time. 

“I do feel like it’s back right now—this resurgence of appreciation for things being imperfect, I guess, things being a little more raw and open,” she said.

The crowd of bucket hats over Doc Martens seemed to agree.  

“There’s angst,” Chloe said. “It’s not just to say emo, but I feel like a lot of the songs and the stuff that I love about the ’90s, it was just very honest, very real.”  

Sweet93’s lyrical component is scant but impactful, leaving the listener to ponder the meaning of the song through the distortion of guitars. For instance, in their song “Be My Best:”

“Tell me what is true / Push it in the water / I wish I could understand your mind / I’d like to know / So I can be my best tonight.”

Chloe draws inspiration not just from savoring another artist’s music, but from recognizing how these artists expressed themselves.  

“I’m sure there were people who were in bands for whatever reason, but I feel like for me, everyone seemed like they were really an artist for the true intention of an artist,” said Chloe. “It was a response to being so fed up [with the time period]. When I found [‘90s music], it was like, ‘wow, I’m home.’ I just felt like I wanted to exist within that world.”

Sweet93 steers itself away from today’s pop perfection, replicating the rawness of the ‘90s instead. Their live performance features an eight-song set that kicked off its tour with Porches—the band performing at the top of its game, nearly perfect. 

Chloe noted that while each member of the band on the Shirt tour has played in Sweet93 before, this is their first time all playing together due to conflicting schedules, creating a sort of dream-team scenario.  

“I haven’t always been able to have this dream version of the band, because of everyone’s [busy] in other bands,” Chloe said. “When I found out about the Porches tour, I was like, ‘guys, this is it—Are we locking this in?’”

The friendship between Chloe and her bandmates is apparent during their performance, from the giggles shared with each of them on stage between songs to the seamless mastery of each track.

Onstage, the band’s five members were shrouded in blue and gold lights, bouncing back between the two, creating two different types of visual stimulation for the audience. 

Chloe’s lighting choice for the tour is based on her perception of Sweet93’s “colors.” 

“I would say [Sweet 93] is a bluish-gray, and the other side of the coin is a warm golden glow,” Chloe said. 

She pointed out that songs like “What’s True?” embody the bluish-gray side, while “Be My Best” represents the golden glow. 

Listening to both songs live, Chloe’s vision is apparent.

“What’s True?” carries a consistent melodic riff throughout the track reminiscent of waves slowly breaking on the ocean. It’s topped off with Chloe’s somber, almost crooning singing, holding the note on the title of the song over the instrumental arrangement.

“Be My Best,” on the other hand, displays scratchy distorted guitars that sound as if they’re a jumbled mess, complemented by Chloe’s echoey voice, which surrounds the listener’s body, like bathing in the warm sun.  

While Sweet93’s colors are prominent, the crew was notably clouded in smoke throughout the performance, a mysterious aura important to Sweet93’s image.

“[The] energy of [Sweet93] belongs more to you. You can fill in the space,” said Chloe. “I don’t necessarily have to give you all the answers.”

One look at Sweet93’s music profile lacks frontwoman Chloe’s face and displays ambient imagery in place, underlines that the project is all about the music that Chloe creates. By projecting this visual, the band emphasizes that it’s not about the fans perceiving her as the mastermind behind the project, but the voice that accompanies it. 

“The music drives the visuals for me,” Chloe said. “I try to follow what I’m doing with the music through the visuals.” 

The images for songs on their streaming platforms, such as “Stars Above,” depicting a tank during the night in a field, and their cover of The Beatles’ classic “Strawberry Fields Forever” depicting two sets of legs standing on an old tile floor litter the Sweet93 page, reminiscent of the Liminal Space aesthetic.

“I like to pique the curiosity a little bit,” Chloe said. 

But when push comes to shove, Chloe still needs to go in front of the crowd and lead her mysterious band despite her distaste for “being perceived.” 

Before this tour, she mainly played small shows for people she knew in New York, feeding off emotions from the crowd. 

“It’s pure love and adoration because it’s my best friends and my boyfriend,” Chloe said. “So in a beautiful way, it feels like they totally match my energy… just taking it in.”

Chloe joked that post-tour, she often needs an emotional self-debrief to process the sensations that come with performing in front of strangers. That’s likely to become a habit, because from her first show at the Sinclair, it wasn’t just the pure love of her friends she attracted, but the starry-eyed gaze of her newest fans.