“I was fifteen with 100K” – Hyperpop’s Youngest Wonderkid Glaive is All Grown Up @ New Century Manchester

The story of Glaive is an unlikely one: getting his first glimpse at stardom during the Covid pandemic with single ‘astrid’, it would’ve been easy for the artist to get left behind as a remnant of that time, music for listening in your bedroom but not quite for the outside world. Many artists did not make it past that time, relegated to soundtracking memories for many. It was a sad and lonely time. But Glaive had laid the foundations, quietly grafting away under an alternate name from 2018 and building notoriety within the Soundcloud hyperpop community, releasing a collaborative EP with hyperpop veteran ericdoa. Since then, Glaive has branched away from the hyperpop genre, instead crafting a brand of technicolour pop music, with his latest album ‘Y’all’ dipping into various genres like trance and guitar rock, whilst still in keeping with his chaotic sound.

On what is only his sixteenth UK appearance, Manchester is giving him its customary warm welcome of a downpour. Still, Glaive fans remain undeterred, with a queue outside the venue snaking around on itself, fans of all ages (but mostly young) queueing excitedly to see their favourite artist. A security guard stands grimly guarding the downstairs bar door, and paper signs read “One Drink Per ID”, for this young and hyper crowd.

Opening the show is kurtains, a Welsh hyperpop artist and longtime collaborator of Glaive, harking back to the 2018 days. Whilst that era of Glaive has long been buried, the friendship has remained, and fans eagerly crammed at the front roar from the barrier as he enters, familiar with Glaive’s sphere. At first kurtains is unassuming, dressed in all black with nothing but a smoke machine on the sprawling stage of New Century, but quickly gets the crowd going with his brand of digicore. 


Right on time is Glaive, skipping out in a collared England shirt, as if he’d just stepped from the front of his latest album cover.  He explodes into ‘We Don’t Leave The House’, a Europop hit with video-game interpolating synths, from the latest album. Immediately, the room shakes; the crowd are on their feet, shaking away the raindrops from the early queue. With no respite, he then follows into the new album favourite ‘Appalachia’, skipping and kicking across the stage. 

The set is hype, fun, and boisterous. It’s an impressive feat: no backdrop; no musicians; just a guy, a laptop and overflowing energy. The crowd is engaged the entire hour set, in which he blisters through his ever-expanding discography. There’s a particularly warm reception to earlier tracks, especially in the fringes of the room, who stand slightly further back from the chaos, perhaps there from the pandemic days where these songs are shrouded in a particular kind of nostalgia, soundtracking a coming-of-age that was very different from what you typically see in the movies. During ‘oh are you bipolar one or two’, a friendship group links arms, holding each other in the moment.

There are sombre moments in the set, towards the end, where the set slows down and Glaive takes a more reflective approach. Approaching the end, after two outfit changes (if we count taking his shirt off as one), he sits hunched on a bar stool in front of the crowded room, where he tells the crowd of his familial connections to Manchester tips him above – the ability to share his vulnerability is what creates such a die-hard community of fans, of fans not much younger than himself. ‘Bennie and Kay’, a track dedicated to his late grandmother, reveals a tenderness and introspection at Glaive’s core that runs through all his tracks; you just might have to dig a little deeper to find it. 

In the track ‘Appalachia’, there’s a line that just about sums up Glaive: “You either do it or you sit there and just talk about it”. Watching Glaive at New Century, it’s clear to see he’s the one doing it – as he brings out kurtains for the encore, he gets the crowd moving one last time, dancing around the stage with his long-time friend with a broad grin on his face. At only 21 years old, who knows what’s to come for this genre-sprawling artist? All we know is it will absolutely be fun. 

 

Kaitlyn Brockley

@kaitlynb.jpeg

Images: @kaitlynb.jpeg




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