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LIGHTS was welcomed back into Canada with open arms at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Saturday night.

Now, I don’t know much, but there are two things about Lights in which afterwards, I became certain: 1) Boys want her, and 2) Girls want to be her. I know, that sounds cliche, but I am not kidding. The dude in front of me was all, “Lights! You drive my soul!” and I actually counted eleven girls wearing neon headbands across their foreheads a la vintage Lights. With the release of her month and a half old debut album, The Listening, it isn’t really any surprise why. If you think about it, she’s easily one of the best new Canadian talents around. Shall I compile the facts? She was a Juno winner for Best New Artist before she even had a full length album out, has a pet tarantula, writes songs about video games, collects swords and is probably better than your little brother at World of Warcraft. I’ll stop there, it’s getting a bit wearisome championing all her accomplishments and interests, I’m beginning to suffer from low self esteem.

With that said - I arrived at the Commodore with high expectations that I was secretly hoping she wouldn’t meet, for my own dignity, obviously. The last time I had tried to catch her in Toronto, it was sold out and have been anxious to find out what she sounds like live. But of course, with her dreamy vocals and cool keytar skills, she was successful in making the audience feel like mere earthlings whilst she remained an intergalactic being that could belong permanently at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy. Darn. In fact, the entire show was just like being inside on of her music videos; everything seemed to take place on some distant planet from an exaggerated, overproduced sci-fi film.

Lights’ fortunate Vancouver audience was the first to see her motion comic series incorporated into the performance. For those of you who haven’t seen “Audio Quest,” it features Lights, erm, I mean, Captain Lights, embarking on her saga of collecting all the audio from the galaxy in an effort to save her home planet. Filled with made-up characters like wah-wahs and audiophiles, this insight into her whimsical imagination is refreshing in a world where your average pop star contributes less creatively than their makeup artist.

From sing-a-long hits like “February Air” and “Saviour”, to feel-good jams like “River” and to 80s-esque tunes like “Second Go”, it’s a bit impossible to not feel slightly elated in Lights’ presence. Her charm is blatantly infectious. She even sneaked an oldie, “White” (though I’d have preferred an actual oldie like “Its Over Casanova”, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.) And clearly the audience wanted more, resulting in ending her set with two encores. First, a cover of Phil Collin’s “In The Air Tonight”, which turned out to be a total fan favourite, then, finally finished with a piano version of “Pretend” which she noted was “how the song was meant to be”. Unlike her usual synthpop sound, her unexpected versatility proves that this girl probably won’t become just some ephemeral Juno winner.

So, like, what are you waiting for? If I were you I’d get my tickets to see Lights perform with Jets Overhead already! (Buy tickets!)

November 12 - Calgary AB - MacEwan Ballroom
November 13 - Edmonton, AB - Myer Horotiwz Theatre
November 14 - Red Deer, AB - Red Deer Memorial Centre
November 16 - Regina, SK - The Distrikt
November 18 - Saskatoon, SK - Louis’ Pub
November 19 - Winnipeg, MB - The Garrick Centre
November 20 - Thunder Bay, ON - The Outpost
November 22 - North Bay, ON - Capitol Centre
November 26 - Toronto, ON - Kool Haus
November 27 - Ottawa, ON - Bronson Centre
November 28 - Montreal, QC - Studio JPR
November 30 - Hamilton, ON - Studio Theatre
December 2 - Kingston, ON - The Ale House
December 3 - London, ON - London Music Hall
December 5 - Kitchener, ON - Wax

P.S.
A friendly reminder to watch Lights Vs. Evil Lights duel it out in her video for ‘Ice’ premiering in Canada today!

Links:
Lights’ Artist Page

Tags: concert reviews, correspondents, lights, reviews, vancouver

Posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 12:57 pm by Arianne - Correspondent and is filed under Concert Reviews.

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