Live Review: Sun Glitters @ Metric, London, 16/06/2012

Sun Glitters, aka Victor Ferreira, headlined on the 16^th of June at “Diggity Dawg” in Metric.  Fair warning for those who don’t, like me, know what Metric is…it was, as I found out, hosted at the Imperial Student Union.  “It can’t be that good if it’s at Metric” someone commented at the entrance.  For the sake of classic chillwave like Victor’s I had to wince.  Cheap drinks and an awkward assortment of strangers were par for the course along with equally awkward warm-up acts.

I missed Phrij and Spank Alley but was just in time for the week-old trio making up the band Nipples.  The soundsystem was chaotically loud or maybe it was just the cacophony from the wordy and overworked songs, constant amp feedback and a guitar that needed to be retuned loudly between songs.  Operation Midnight Climax redeemed the Uni bands with energetic and well-played songs that had the crowd finally edging towards the stage, and one completely adorable band member’s girlfriend who brought him cups of water throughout the set.

The next group up was the duo from Evermean.  Perfectly suited to the crowd they mixed bass music, dubstep and future beats with an influences of 80’s soul and hiphop.  High energy vocals and a DJ set that had everyone jumping finally filled the room while fairy liquid and food-colouring projection art were showcased by Hungarian artist Gabor Kerekes.

When the moment finally came for the headline act, Sun Glitters, the crowd shrank.  As the beautiful chilled out songs sank into my ears I had plenty of dance-room, but that wasn’t the best thing for Victor.  He was zoned into his performance, looking intently at the mixer while a few members of an invading pack of drinking society boys jumped on stage for impromptu lawn-mower dance sessions. Despite the thousands of fans I knew existed elsewhere I could only find one person who had heard of Sun Glitters before, a photographer from Victor’s home-city of Luxembourg.  The crowd filled up the room again…when My Panda Shall Fly took to the stage. “I feel bad for the last guy.” a sympathetic audience member quipped.

To put it simply, this was just not the crowd for Victor Ferreira or his musical alias Sun Glitters. Someone at the University had good taste, but with a crowd that half came to get drunk  at a venue that was notoriously unpredictable and often just bad music. No one was prepared for chillwave – especially alongside bass, dubstep, university guitar bands and 90’s club music. Even if you came for any particular band you wouldn’t even be remotely interested in most of the rest, and most were there to support their mate’s bands or yell their drunken heads off in a dancing frenzy.

-April Whitlow