At 10pm, everybody at The Forum was probably wondering, ‘Where is Sky Ferreira?’ Half an hour after her scheduled performance time, the alt-pop singer, wearing sunglasses, finally emerged with her band. Fanfare erupted through the theatre as Ferreira awkwardly walked to the microphone to mumble something inaudible. A shaky start, but the crowd seemed eager enough to hear what she had in store.
Backlit by purple and blue lighting, Ferreira began with three songs from her most popular project, Night Time, My Time, her debut album. While the songs were easy to enjoy, with obvious hooks and straightforward song structures, they left much to be desired. As the first leg of the show, these songs were supposed to captivate concert-goers; however, there seemed to be a disconnection between Ferreira, the band and, most importantly, the audience.
Ferreira nonchalantly paced around with very little stage presence in a disappointing start to the performance. At this point, I was listening more to the band, who were trying their best to convince fans, whose anticipation had been building since 2013 (the year Night Time, My Time was released), that they were getting what they’d been waiting for.
The energy in the crowd was polarising too. On one hand, there was a girl screaming every lyric to ‘You’re Not the One’ in my right ear, and on the other, a couple in front of me glanced at each other like they were lost in a club.
Read: Performance review: ANITO, RISING Festival, Arts House
After some hits, the band and Ferreira played a few synth ballads that felt drawn out and poorly considered in terms of setlist curation. Every now and again, Ferreira chuckled and murmured about how she’s ‘not good at speaking’, taking me completely out of the experience of the already bland songs. On the way out, I encountered a long-time fan of hers who told me she was in the second row and was left highly disappointed.
For somebody who has collaborated with the likes of Charli XCX and G-Dragon, Ferreira’s performance paled in comparison to those more engaging artists. It seemed that Ferreira was leaning into being “cool”, as many alternative artists do, but there’s a thin line between “cool” and “indifference”. Personally, I can’t help but feel like Ferreira was really leaning into the latter.
Sky Ferreira performed as part of RISING Festival on 4 June at The Forum, Melbourne.
