REVIEW: Rubii at Sidney&Matilda
Having come across Rubii early in 2024, I’d been hoping to catch her live ever since I first heard the ever-catchy ‘Jealousy’ playing on a TikTok audio. Sheffield is often missed when artists tour the North; given our relative closeness to Manchester and Leeds, and the recent closures of the O2 and The Leadmill, we often get forgotten. So, my mate and I jumped at the chance to hear her live when we saw the announced Steel City date.
Sidney&Matilda is one of my favourite places to be in Sheffield. When it’s busy, there’s a vibrant atmosphere - the crowd is usually a good mix of people, and you feel as though everyone is there for the love of the music. Though it was a Sunday, Rubii’s crowd proved to be no different. We arrived, thanks to a cancelled Uber, a couple of minutes after she’d started, and the room was packed! I wasn’t too sure what to expect of her listeners; having amassed a lot of streams through TikTok, it would’ve been easy to assume a largely younger, female crowd. However, this wasn’t the case. Taking our spot towards the back, I noticed a mix of younger listeners, middle-aged couples, and we even spotted a young girl there with her parents, perhaps at her first gig.
Photo: Scarlett Mills & Rebecca Hope
Accompanied by a live band, it was a pleasure to hear the jazz influences in her music brought to life. Soulful and rhythm-driven, her set was characterised by the same vibe as when playing her tracks in my bedroom: easy, smooth, and ultimately very chill. I think a Sunday evening was actually the perfect time to catch her. We let her harmonies and gentle cadence ease away the Sunday scaries, and it felt like the perfect grounding for the week ahead. My personal standout was the stripped-back, acoustic style she delivered my favourite single, ‘Night Drive’, in. Letting the band fall away and allowing her voice to shine, it was a pleasure to take in the serene image she paints when performing that tune. A special nod to her saxophonist, who crushed his solos and maintained an infectious groove throughout the set. She even treated us to some unreleased tracks, very much cemented in her neo-soul roots blended with a slight trapness; the songs were upbeat, boppy and had me excited for their release. The introspective ‘Jammin’ and the old-school hip-hop influenced ‘Jealousy’ were close seconds for highlights of the night - the drums were punchy, and the crowd’s energy was high. It was with a somewhat parasocial sense of pride that I smiled at the evident happiness of a singer hearing their own words sung back to them.
Photo: Scarlett Mills & Rebecca Hope
Having been standing near the edge, we thought we might try to manoeuvre to a better listening spot, but unfortunately, the audio quality didn’t improve much. One critique I sadly have to make is that it was often a struggle to hear her clearly. While her delivery and lyrics often carry a conversational tone, we ultimately ended up hearing more of the conversations happening around us than the act herself. Sidney&Matilda’s sound system has never been an issue I’ve encountered before, and we were told the performance was being recorded personally by the band, so perhaps the recording took precedence over the live mix? Either way, we left a song early, thinking we’d rather beat the Uber rush since we were struggling to make out which song was which.
It’s always a pleasure to catch an artist you like in the city you love; I just wish we’d been able to hear her better. Though quiet, her performance was still enjoyable, and has only deepened my appreciation for her music and sound.
Words: Scarlett Mills
Photos: Scarlett Mills & Rebecca Hope
