For all that is different in the music stylings of twenty-something rock femme fatales Lights and Hayley Williams, similarities can be found in their respective abilities to command attention through their sheer force of presence.
Lights, sporting a baby bump in her sixth month of pregnancy (her husband is Blessthefall frontman Beau Bokan), opened for the Williams-led Paramore on Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre, employing her airy, ethereal sound to lead into Paramore’s energized pop/punk spectacle.
Following a quick, entertaining set by nerd–chic indie group Hellogoodbye, the Timmins-born Lights (real name: Valerie Anne Poxleitner) took to the stage for what she announced was her final live performance before taking time off to “take care of this mystery person here.” She wasn’t prepared to bounce around the stage as Williams would do later in the night, but that’s never been the style of the mellow, melancholy singer, anyway. Instead, her powerful-yet-delicate vocals buoyed some otherwise repetitive instrumentals during a 45-minute showing that included crowd favourites “Toes” and “Drive My Soul.”
If the crowd reception that Lights received was warm, then the response to Williams and Paramore was red hot, with 5,000 fans (the ACC employed their smaller, ‘Sears Theatre’ set-up) standing and cheering on their explosive arrival.
Emerging onto a brightly lit, avant garde-style stage, the band carried that energy right into their peppy opener, “Grow Up.” Their uneven set featured several standout highlights (they played the ‘have an audience member sing with you’ gimmick to perfection on “Misery Business”) and a few lows (“When It Rains” and “The Only Exception” seemed out of sync and ill-fitting with the rest of the two-hour show).
But the unmistakable bright spot — figuratively and literally — through it all was the fire-haired Williams, whose spastic dance moves and exuberant enthusiasm made her impossible to look away from. The 24-year-old projected a genuine glee for performing and a real appreciation for her fans.
Even beyond the magnetic appeal of her physical presence on stage, her voice possessed a stunning sharpness and versatility that helped her shine on both upbeat and slower, softer tracks. On the band’s brief cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” it wasn’t difficult to close your eyes and see visions of Stevie Nicks performing on stage.
I know that Paramore is a band (and credit to guitarists Jeremy Davis and Taylor York for sticking around through a tumultuous stretch for the group), but this night was clearly about Hayley Williams and Lights, two of the premier females in modern rock n’ roll.
