It took Sky Ferreira years of label wranglings and shelved projects to finally get a debut album out into the world. For a while, it seemed as if bureaucracy was going to be a waste of a brilliant pop star; in interviews, Ferreira was blunt and funny, and the singles that did drip through showed charisma and spark. When Night Time, My Time finally appeared in 2013, it was such an accomplished pop record that it appeared on a number of best-of-the-year lists in the UK despite the fact that – for some incomprehensible reason – it's not officially out in Britain until March.
Tonight it's obvious that Ferreira has it in her to be a star, but what's not at all clear is whether she wants the fame. She looks tiny and tough, and not entirely happy, dwarfed even by the little club stage. In a beanie hat and huge coat, she resembles an Olsen twin who has found herself in the cast of The Wire, and she pulls Kurt Cobain sunglasses on and off her face throughout her short set. When she sings, it's worn and soulful, and this is what marks her out: she has a lived-in voice far from the learned competence of some of her peers.
The problem is, Ferreira does more apologising than singing, and her band barely gets to finish a song. It's frustratingly shambolic. She tears through opening track Boys as if she means business, and it sounds slick and certain and full of potential. But that's as good as it gets. The sunglasses go on for 24 Hours, and a barrier seems to go up. "Sorry, sorry," she says, for the first time of many. "Can you just turn me up, like, everywhere?" The next song, I Will, falls apart completely. "I'm sorry, I'd rather not … I just don't want to fuck it up," she shrugs. "We'll come back to that." They don't.
It's all over after just six songs, much to the surprise of the crowd. She plays Everything Is Embarrassing, then that is that. It's a maddening experience. You get the impression Ferreira could do it if she wanted to; but spending a gig willing the act to pull it together is a strange and unsettling experience.
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