LIGHTS Tries Her Best To Shine Despite Mountain Of Technical Issues In Baltimore

LIGHTS performs in Baltimore - Stacey Johnson/NeonLimelight.com

“I’ll be the one to keep you one disaster less,” Toronto-born electro-pop singer LIGHTS sang during her final song, “The Last Thing On Your Mind,” Friday night (January 29) at a concert at Rams Head Live in Baltimore, Maryland. Sadly, LIGHTS could have benefited from someone keeping her set one disaster less.

The normally dazzling performer, who is touring with “Fireflies” singer Owl City, was forced to deliver a half-baked show rife with technical issues that were out of her control.

She walked on stage — petite and casual in a red and black plaid button-up, dark blue jeans, and black boots, her hair in her signature “comb-over” she nicknamed “Rainier” — at 8:17 PM without an introduction, going straight into “The Listening,” the title-track from her long-awaited debut album that was released last year.

As the crowd began swaying along to the delicious synths coming from her keyboard, they soon noticed the singer’s vocals were incredibly low. “Is she even singing?,” someone, who was standing not even a third of the way back from the stage, said. It was clear the problem was not with LIGHTS but with the volume of her microphone.

She introduced herself, but made no mention of the sound issues before launching into the bouncy “Lions!” The sound of her mic this time was bit louder, but still left many scratching their heads as to why the problems weren’t being corrected so they could fully enjoy the show.

Before her popular song “February Air,” which many will recognize from its feature in an Old Navy sweater commercial, LIGHTS discovered her “freeing” keytar was broken. She went back to her keyboard, but with her vocals still low, the song was completely drowned out by bass. It was just another rock being piled on top of the mountain of issues she faced in her almost 40-minute set.

A glimmer of light shined on the twinkling synth-filled “Ice.” “What I need is/All I need is/Just a little emotion/’Cause all I see is you not feeling/And you’re giving me nothing nice/I tried to treat you right/Why’d you have to go and turn to ice,” she sang on the rapid-paced chorus. Though the sound was still iffy, the catchy melody was irrefutable.

Fans who caught her late last year at her headlining show at Sonar in Baltimore know this was just one unfortunate day for the singer. “I’m having a rough keyboard day as you can see,” she said at one point. Understatement. The real shame here is that concert-goers who turned out just to see Owl City didn’t get the chance to fall in love with her like they undoubtedly would have had everything gone as planned. With dates on the tour stretching through May, hopefully her beloved keytar will be resurrected and she’ll get another chance to sparkle like she was meant to.