Yesterday last minute, I was offered the opportunity to review Canadian pop electronica sweetheart, Lights, at the Vogue Theatre. I did not hesitate to take up the offer. In fact, the only reason I hadn’t asked up front for the chance originally was a lot to do with it being scheduled on the same night as hip hop pioneer KRS-One and a little to do with it being a bit of a guilty, little secret of mine. I swear it was only recently that I had noticed myself getting excited about catching her radio play occasionally while on the road. Since the 2009 release of debut album The Listening, I had been hearing “Drive My Soul” and “Ice” on the radio, among her other multiple singles, and until now I had been more or less what I thought was somewhat indifferent. I’m not quite sure when the tide began to turn, but I do know when she sealed the deal: The moment yesterday when I decided to look up her newest album, Siberia, released just last month in October 2011. Keeping her signature girlish vocals and harmonic electo-pop foundation, she has gone this time with a slightly (I said slightly) grittier twist, infusing a currently hot dubstep flavour into her most recent endeavours. Although the sick bass lines don’t reverberate all the tracks on the album, and they only drop periodically (but perfectly) into choice space within particular tracks, it takes her songs from being solely what I would think of as bubble gum pop to a more mature almost club vibe.
As expected, the Vogue was flooded with tiny tweens and shrieking teenage girls waving, well, lights. That being said, I was surprised at the number of grown men I saw there that I am pretty damn sure were not attached to any child or girlfriend. Honourable mention goes to the super drunk guy who bowled me over to get to the front (and apologized repeatedly, I’ll give him credit) and the gaggle of sparkly clothed men wiggling along to the music in front of me. I don’t blame them for their wiggling, for within 5 minutes of being there I had decided that Lights was so adorable I wanted to put her in my pocket, take her home and simply keep her forever! On stage, twenty four year old Lights (nee Valerie Anne Poxleiter) is a talented keyboarding princess, so dainty and elfin, and who is nothing like the over sexed pop tarts we are used to seeing churned out by MTV and Much Music. The strangest thought occurred to me as I alternated between giggling at Wiggly Sparkly Dudes and observing Lights gently prancing across the stage and touching fingers with her fans: If I ever had a daughter, this is who I would like her to admire as a role model and aspire to be like. While there is no denying she has her own innocent brand of adult seduction, she is fully clothed (see: head to toe) and there is none of that exaggerated sexuality to her presence. She plays an instrument and (I’m a sucker, here it goes) travels internationally in support of World Visions as representative and also in the field. Now since I don’t plan on having children any time soon if ever, I suddenly feel like I need to apply this knowledge to one of my friend’s kids… “Hey, Hannah, have you met Lights?” Forgive me for the HIMYM reference!
Darling and demure as the girl is, she knows how to drop a dirty beat. Insert dubstep. I swear the glow sticks in the room got brighter on principle. The tiny Vogue would erupt into a dance party, parents too (shhhhh I saw you), when Lights hooked us with songs like “Where The Fence is Low” inspired by a dream and co-written by USS’s Human Kebab and “Flux and Flow” with rapper Shad. Speaking of the Canadian hip hop artist, Shad made an unexpected (by me at least) appearance this night and gave a little street cred to his girl Lights, sharing the performance of songs they wrote together for Siberia. I wondered briefly if he would be going to the KRS-One show afterwards, like myself; definitely a good night to be in Vancity as a hip hop lover. With his help and that of the young gentlemen of her band whom she introduced leading with their Twitter accounts, Lights kept us all cheerfully entertained with her modest banter and sweet charm. And just when I thought all was said and done, the rowdy little girls, their parents et al, cheered for an encore and pushed a second finish to the night. She delivered us a beautiful lullaby, ending with a lovely and delicate acoustic version of February Air. While Lights may play on the same rotation at the same radio stations as her vampy counterparts of pop stardom, I will be hard pressed from now on to allow her to be lumped in with the women we see smudged across the tabloids. Everything about her seems far more down to earth and authentic, so I hope whatever she has broadcasting on that personal youtube channel of hers I have yet to watch, does not let me down… I would like to think of her as a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Haha, sorry I just had to say that. The end.
Review by: Lauren Dallas / Photos by: Cassie Devaney
