LIGHTS AT IRVING PLAZA IN NEW YORK CITY
There is something about the entire process of going to see a live concert - what venue the show is being played at, who is on the bill, and even the weather outside. This show was set with me taking a trip back into NYC. It was a chilly Tuesday evening, but manageable to walk around with a hoodie. Irving Plaza is the venue where Lights was set to perform at. When you are a fan of music, and you are walking towards that venue where you are about to see them live, you just become even more alive.
Lights (Valeria Anne Poxleitner) is a Canadian musician that has been in the game since 2008. She is a talented musician as well as a singer and songwriter. As she said during the show, she writes a lot of her material to help heal and overcome certain times throughout her life (both past & present). I discovered Lights one late evening back in 2016 while I was at the studio just playing the drums to random tracks. I listened to several tracks before landing on “Skydiving”. This one song is all I would need to become a fan for life.
Lights has won several awards throughout her career (Juno Award for New Artist of the Year, Astral Media Radio Awards, plus more) and has collaborated with other successful artists (Bring Me The Horizon, Deadmau5, and others) since hitting the scene. During the recent pandemic, she did a live performance entitled “Dead End in Joshua Tree“ promoting her remix album Dead End. After seeing that, I could not wait for my chance to come to be able to see her live.
Last Tuesday, April 19th 2022, I was finally able to both shoot Lights as well as see her live in action. Irving Plaza had a full house of fans all ecstatic to see her perform. The set list was full of classics, new music, and most importantly my favorite, “Skydiving”! The show started with a current new hit of hers “Prodigal Daughter”, followed by “Ice” and “Up We Go”. Some other hits she performed during the show were “We Were Here”, “Batshit”, “Okay Okay”, and closed out the night with another new hit “Salt and Vinegar”. With her band taking the back sides of the stage, Lights took up all areas she could from stage right to left. As she performed her music, she showed the entire crowd her passion and love for what she does. She even came off stage and climbed into the crowd to give a little more of a first person view for some of the die-hard front row fans. When it comes to talent, Lights has it all. Her style and image is superior, unique, and will have you staring the entire time she is within your view. On top of writing her music and being one of the most powerful and beautiful female singers, she can pick up the guitar and lay down some keys as well. As I said, her talent is like no other and she deserves all the recognition (if not more) than she is receiving.
If you have ever been to Irving Plaza, you know the stage isn’t huge. The venue is clean and has 2 levels to watch the show. Lights’ setup this evening was great in regards to video content and nothing over powering the actual performer. If anything, it surely added to the performance, but nothing could ever take away from Lights herself as a performer. She thanked her fans over and over throughout the show. She spoke about life and just made you feel like you were having a real (which it all certainly was real) conversation one on one with her. It wasn’t like she was just trying to tell a story to go along with the set. It was pure from the heart. It was touching and hit me personally with experiences I have recently gone through. It was all simply real.
The “Baby I’m Back Tour” made a stop in NYC, and I am grateful to have been able to shoot it and attend. Lights was everything I could have imagined live. The energy was nonstop from start to finish. The sound was perfect. The stage setup and video displays were perfect. The night was perfect. That sounds to me like a win for coming back to NYC and putting on an absolutely amazing (and perfect) performance.