A generational pop talent: Rina Sawayama, at the O2 Academy Brixton, reviewed

The first time I saw Franz Ferdinand was at the sadly lost Astoria, just after the release of their first album. I’d liked but not loved the record, but that night I experienced the single most exciting thing in live music: artist and audience absolutely united in the conviction that this – the biggest gig of their career so far and by far – was the last time this band would be playing a place this small. Both band and audience – and even the VIP enclosure of the balcony, in front of where I stood – radiated excitement about all of us being in this together: prepare for lift-off, next stop the stars!

Rina Sawayama’s Brixton show was the same febrile, euphoric, shared experience. She strode around the stage as if she were already in an arena, gazing at a point 100ft behind the back wall of the Academy. She and her band came with the trappings of an arena gig, too: with a catwalk and steps, a pair of dancers, plus the four-act structure that’s common with arena pop shows to allow for costume changes and to group songs by mood or theme.