It gets off to a rocky start tonight. Mistaking support act Gabriel Bruce for Gabrielle Bruce, I envisaged a sweet, female acoustic guitarist. What I got, however, was a slightly terrifying grown man with vocals so low he’d give Leonard Cohen a run for his money. A crowd of teenage girls, 20 something rockers and middle aged couples that Scala houses tonight look as baffled as I do as Gabriel clamours around the stage like a risen zombie and tells us all to “go kill [yourselves]”. Well, that’s one way of getting a crowds attention.
Fortunately, it’s not long before 20 year old Sky Ferreira graces the stage and her methods of winning over a crowd are drastically different – with an insatiable bashfulness. She throws out a wave and a “hello” during ‘Lost In My Bedroom’ and it’s rewarded with screams from the front row. If you weren’t familiar with her career as a model before tonight, it would take all of one song to guess. Her petrol coloured leather jacket that fashionably sits one size too large and a messy blonde bob that falls over her face leaving red lips and one kohl-lined eye on show are heavy clues. It feels, at points, like a Rimmel London advert.
“I LOVE YOU!” comes an affectionate heckle from somewhere within the crowd. “Hey…I love you too, I guess” replies a coy Sky with an almost school-girl giggle. There’s a complete divide between the girl we see singing and the girl we see in between songs. A real sheepishness swallows her up when she addresses the crowd but the second the bass, drums and keyboard kick in for tracks like pop-punk ’24 Hours’, she morphs into a self-assured songstress who has no issue in strutting across the LED and strobe-lit stage. It’s no surprise to find Madonna and Blondie’s Debbie Harry amongst a list of her inspirations. She channels young versions of both in her shows.
‘Ghost’ really shows off what Sky can deliver vocally. She draws out the lyrics “What did I do/To make you so cruel?” in rich, full tones that give weight to the meaningful words as blue and red lights blur her features and sharpen her outline so she becomes ghost-like herself. She begins to relax into her role as performer for tracks like ‘Werewolf’, acting out the lyrics with punchy hand gestures. It’s clear to see how her music and tumblr page have dictated her largely teenage fan base. She touches on love, hate, relationships,girls, rumours and anything else you can think of that goes straight to a teenagers heart.
Sky has left the best until last and she knows it. “This is our last song” she announces “aaaand”, she hesitates teasingly, “It’s called ‘Everything is Embarrassing’”. It’s her best known track, set to a nostalgic ‘80s beat and it’s the climax of tonight. She stares moodily into the crowd that’s singing back to her and as the track fades out, a bottle of Smirnoff ice is thrust towards her for her to down in one, as the drinking game goes. “I’ve been iced! I can’t believe it” she exclaims in her Californian accent before kneeling down and gulping it down in one. It’s not easy to break into the English music scene but if she carries on with party tricks like this, she’ll be welcomed in a heartbeat.
Amy Bryant
@amyebryant
