Lights at the CNE

My arms get cold.. In February air.... The chorus lines of one of Lights space/sci fi electro pop singles.

Lights Poxleitner is a Canadian singer-songwriter who's lived all over the world but is now based out of the Toronto area. This resonates strongly with me since I've also lived around the world. Lights' sound is electro-synth-indie-pop, a bit similar to Owl City. So when I saw she was doing a free show at the Ex, I thought it would be interesting to see how she performed her music live.

Lights did a good job with all her songs. Her voice was pretty strong live and she played a ton of different instruments such as guitar, keyboards, synths and keytar. The concert was also at the CNE grounds bandshell but unlike Marianas Trench, I sat in the main section since they actually had benches out and it was not as over run with people. The crowd turned out to be people in their teens to late twenties of both genders, so there was a bit of a mix which was nice. And even though there were benches in the main part of the grounds though, I ended up having to stand on a bench to see since that's what everyone else did in the audience.

She did a good mix of both stuff from her self-titled debut album and material from her soon to be released record, Siberia. Also she did quite a few acoustic songs during the set, probably the best being a fan favourite, Cactus In The Valley. She engaged with the audience quite a bit and seemed happy to be back in Toronto. She moved around the stage a lot and performed a few songs in middle and on both sides of the stage, so everybody in the audience had a good view for at least a couple songs. Also Lights had on one of my favourite onstage outfits, like with Eric Clapton (who wore a tshirt and jeans at his concert) since her plaid shirt and denim shorts seemed a comfortable performing choice.

Lights performing new single Toes at the Toronto CNE