Party for the Planet

Party for the Planet is an event put on by the City of Surrey to encourage us to take care of our planet. I just wanted to come out and see Lights.
Low scale festival with a few events.
Smell of various food trucks mingling with the breeze teased me.
Now onto the business at hand which was the music. The large cultural demographic in Surrey loves anything free, therefore, it was a good turn out. But even free had a few downfalls that I will get to later.
Hey Ocean = An Indie band from Vancouver that I have seen over the years on various festival billings, however, never heard of the music until today. I have some hipster friends who really like them, therefore, decided to sample them before making any future financial commitment. The songs are there, the chemistry is there, the band played well and the sound mix for an outdoor show was surprisingly good. All members were animated and played their own show role without competing but rather complementing each other. I honestly enjoyed them a lot more than I thought that I would. Ashleigh Ball was very confident and played her front women very well to clearly an audience who were there for another agenda. She was in her own world and into her own performance. Her vocals were a bit raw in some parts which worked in her favor and added some indie charm.
Lights = I was very disappointed in this performance. Beggars can’t be choosers after all since this was free. We all have bad days and I am glad that Lights got it over and done with at a free gig rather than at one of the stops on the full proper tour. The turn out was decent, however, announced very last minute after confirmation of the two Rio shows next week being sold out. Her vocals were extremely rough and in some cases completely out of tune. Cold weather is sometimes problematic for outdoor shows, however, there were other factors at play. Lights is rehearsed for this acoustic tour and hasn’t played with her full band in 6 months, therefore, there was no time for full rehearsals. The keys were played right by the band, however, they seemed out of synch a lot with each other. Lights sported her new blond hair and instead of playing the role of electro geek, she is playing more of the Emily Haines pop star role. I am conflicted if I am turned on or disturbed. Metric’s band manager was Lights road manager for the last Vogue show, therefore, wondering if some higher ups in the US distribution market is trying to heavily encourage Lights to be more commercial to break it. Her body moving and posing was more American idol than quirky Star Trek in the past. It also bugged me that she was barely behind the keyboards and made the rest of the band do the heavy lifting so that she had time to play new pop diva in the making. This new personality change in combination with the under rehearsed set threw me for a loop. Lights herself wasn’t 100% into the performance, therefore, that energy rubbed off on me. It’s psychologically amazing going from black hair to blond makes you feel like a whole different person. I wasn’t feeling it this time. The only song that vocally was manageable and decent was «February Air.» Everything else she was suffering from Bono vocal syndrome. Everyone is entitled to one bad show and now that it is out of the way I can look forward to next weekend. For a free show I was surprised that the city gave her a full 90 minute set which covered most of Siberia, a few hits and a Blondie cover.