Credit: Sara Castro

By Marco Castro

A few weeks ago Columbus received the Canadian pop singer/songwriter LIGHTS at the Bluestone, and we were there to chronicle this encounter.

Coming from an electro-pop school where everything is produced to its maximum, it was a very nice surprise when she announced the release of an acoustic version of her album Siberia, followed by a very extensive North American tour. The Bluestone is a venue operating on an old church building in downtown Columbus, so it has a very nice charm for a concert of this type.

The Americana/ folk outfit from Tennessee Matt Hectorne & the Family Tree opened with a few songs the night while everybody got a seat on the main floor. The setting was very chill and definitely not your traditional Lights show. She came out right away and with no introduction started to play her hit Flux and Flow with a great twist from the original. There she was by herself with only a couple of guitars and a piano, accompanied by her cello player Kevin Fox. No auto-tune, no catchy pop tunes; just simple stripped down acoustic music.

The audience was very captivated throughout her whole set, which was very interactive and at times it seemed like a very candid Q&A rather than a concert –one fan even stood up to give her a present. Her set heavily consisted on Siberia songs like “Peace Sign,” “Cactus in The Valley,” “Siberia” and the hit “Toes,” but also included old favorites like “Savior” and “Drive My Soul.”

The only weird part of the night was the couple really intense fans yelling out loud about her being hot/loving her/etc. We get it, but too much is too much… No surprise she wouldn’t come out for meet and greet.

Her voice and songwriting are simply remarkable, and since the venue turned into an unexpected listening room, she took the opportunity to explain the meaning of most songs and share memories of them.

Then the encore came, but this time the “one more song” chants seemed very genuine as the audience definitely appreciated at the whole concert. Lights came out and the crowd stood up from their seats and came forward to the stage as she started to play the fans anthem “Banner,” with people holding actual banners too.

A very nice night that showed how an artist that is often tried to put in a box, breaks all stereotypes and reinvents herself back to her songwriting roots.