Live Review: Lights At Gramercy Theatre New York City, October 19th 2011

by Jordan Meehan

On Wednesday, October 19th I was fortunate enough to see Lights in New York City with a friend of mine. The venue was the appropriately sized Gramercy Theatre in, you guessed it, Gramercy. The venue seemed like a perfect fit: intimate, dimly lit and eager to be filled with heavy beats and swirling, other worldly synths. From the moment she stepped on stage and delivered a power-house performance of "Banner", a song from the new album, it was clear that Lights was here to deliver.

She moved seamlessly through her setlist, which included a lot of songs from her first album, such as "February Air", "Ice", and "Second Go" and a generous amount of songs from her new album, "Siberia", such as "Flux and Flow", "Suspension", "Siberia" and "Toes". One of the things that really stood out to me was that, unlike many electronica and pop artists, Lights did not rely solely on a play back of her music; she played her own music, along with her band, on her synths, pianos and guitars, and played it damnwell! Some of the highlights of her show were definitely "Where the Fence is Low" (probably my favorite song off the new album), her earth shattering performance of "Everybody Breaks a Glass", which made the small theatre performance feel like a huge arena show with her soaring vocals, and her intimate, acoustic performance of "And Counting".

Live Review: Darren Hayes "The Secret Tour" at Shepherds Bush Empire October 19th 2011

If you were one of the lucky ones to witness Darren Hayes live gig at Shepherds Bush Empire in West London last night, you'll surely agree that this stop on "The Secret Tour" most certainly was a night to remember as fans from as far and wide as America, Canada and contiental Europe descended upon the venue to witness this one stop on the UK Tour.

In a way, I really felt like this concert was a re-introduction of Darren Hayes back into the music mainstream as the set-list was sprinkled with many familiar Savage Garden hits like "To The Moon And Back", "Affirmation" and "I Don't Know You Anymore" which sounded as fresh and lush played live today as when they were first worldwide smashes. 

One of the funnier anecdotes of the evening was Darren's diva-ish declaration of "I shant play my hits, but then I said fuck it..." when he burst out with "The Animal Song" - a Savage Garden track he hasn't played in over a decade because he thought "the lyrics were are bit silly".  However, this song got a roaring reception from the packed out house as we were instantly transported back in time to Savage Garden's hayday.

The task at hand though was ultimately to give the audience a taster of the brilliant new album "Secret Codes and Battleships" in which we got to hear many of the new tracks such as "Don't Give Up", "Black Out The Sun" and big hit "Talk Talk Talk" which had the entire venue joyously singing along.  The show's opening and closing numbers also mirror the new album in which "Taken By The Sea" opened the show and an emotional "The Siren's Call" closed out the encore. 

Bright Light Bright Light Launches New Single "Disco Moment" at London Fashion Week

 

Last night we went to the launch of Bright Light Bright Light's new single at London Fashion Week, and they gave us this:

 

Crikey.  The new single, "Disco Moment", is very very good, and we were lucky enough to hear Bright Light Bright Light perform it live, along with an impressive setlist of their other brilliant songs. As man-in-charge Rod Thomas explains, 'a Disco Moment is the point in time when you're totally lost in having the time of your life. It's like when your favourite song comes on in a club or you're with your best friend and everything's fantastic. The song examines how it feels to watch someone have this moment without you.'

Stirring stuff. Watch the official video to "Disco Moment", below:

You can download "Disco Moment" here.