Lights at Showbox: Come Get Your Girl

If I took the time to go back through my “Year in Review” playlists, at some point I’d absolutely find Lights’ “Up We Go (2014)” near the top of one of them. This song has so much hype and energy that immediately puts me in a great mood. While Lights makes fairly regular visits to the area, this was the first show that finally lined up for me to attend, and it was an absolute blast of an evening.

Kicking off the show for the night was Softcult, a Canadian-based duo of twins playing “alt-shoegaze”. Their debut album, When a Flower Doesn’t Grow, very recently released in January, so this was a great opportunity to get to know their style with a full album of music to enjoy. While their music may feel somber at first, the range of energy through the songs and lyricism within them give you a lot to explore deeper into their mindset. With at least one “F**k Ice” and a dedicated song to “the lovers in the crowd,” the audience was consistently headbanging their way through the whole set.

After a beautiful mix of what felt like a playlist built for the millennials in the crowd, the house brought down the lights and kicked off an 80’s hype song that had security dancing while they waited for the band Lights to take the stage. No stranger to the Pacific Northwest, Lights is a household name throughout Canada, regularly playing at events like Canada Day in Vancouver. This show really felt like a full house family event with Lights giving a shoutout to the group of Canadians that came down from Vancouver, her family who also came down for the show, and her daughter who just turned 12 years old.

Released the same week as Softcult’s debut album, Light’s latest album A6EXTENDED also came out this January before the tour COME GET YOUR GIRL kicked off February 13th in Calgary. While the setlist only included a set of songs from the album, she did play one of my favorites, “Surface Tension”, which includes a set of German lyrics that caught me off guard the first listen through. Other songs played included older classics like “Toes,” an amazing cover of Taking Back Sunday’s “Cute without the E (Cut from the Team),” and my classic favorite, “Up We Go.”

This show was also not without some fun twists. At one point, the team rolled out a gamer chair with a giant lit up alphanumeric A6 that Lights relaxed on for a bit and continued to passionately sing in. Midway through, an audience member offered a piece of paper that she could draw on so that they could get a tattoo of whatever she drew. And near the end of the show, Lights paused to read out a letter that mentioned “not having a ring yet” which ended up being a proposal between a couple at the show. They said yes! With many weeks left in the tour, I highly recommend getting out to a show if you get the chance. Who knows, it could even be an opportunity to propose to your partner.