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TORONTO - It was a homecoming, of sorts.
A few songs into her set at Toronto's Kool Haus on Thursday night, Timmins, Ont.-born singer Lights looked across the energetic crowd and grinned.
"I wasn't born in Toronto," said the synth-pop performer, "but I've never felt as at home as I do right now."
The quirky 22-year-old musician, travelling across Canada on her first major headlining tour, was in town to promote The Listening, her debut full-length album.
Lights, also known as Valerie Poxleitner, first found fame with her self-titled EP in 2008, which contained catchy mid-tempo songs filled with fluttering keyboards and bubblegum melodies. After placing her songs in a few Old Navy commercials, winning a Juno for Best New Artist and following the guidance of manager and CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi, the pint-sized singer has accumulated a sizeable fanbase.
Lights seemed to be everywhere on Thursday, as female fans paid tribute to the performer by copying her trademark headband look. Some girls took it a step further by dressing up as Wonder Woman, a favourite of the comics-loving musician.
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Jets Overhead, an atmospheric five-piece from Victoria, B.C., began the evening with a series of trippy numbers that showcased the solid harmonies of singers Adam Kittredge and Anthonia Freybe-Smith. The group maintained a very ordinary-looking image, as if a bunch of your co-workers from the office suddenly walked onstage and knew how to perform psychedelic pop songs.
Eventually, the headliner bounded onstage - along with keyboardist Adam Weaver and drummer Maurie Kaufmann - and began her set with The Listening's the title track.
A few songs later, when she strapped on her keytar and played the first few notes of February Air, the crowd greeted her electronic bloops with roars of appreciation. As a projector displayed massive images of a swirling galaxy behind her, Lights handled the vocal melody well, singing with her hair in her face and conducting the audience in a sing-along during the chorus.
While older songs like Ice worked well alongside newer tracks like Pretend and Saviour, the most entertaining parts of the set may have actually been the between-song moments, when she would generate colossal cheers by just approaching the microphone and shaking her head in disbelief.
After two grueling months of touring and a significant American jaunt with fellow synth-poppers Owl City around the corner, this seemed like exactly the kind of hometown support Lights needed.
"You know every time I come home - I'm calling this home, by the way - it gets better and better, and more fun, with more voices singing along, and that feels amazing," gushed the singer, who keeps an apartment in Toronto.
While the venue's sound blemished her set a bit - amp humming made the clips from her comic cartoon series Audio Quest: A Captain Lights Adventure difficult to hear, and mic feedback nearly diminished the power of The Last Thing On Your Mind - she had to be applauded for creating a dynamic-rich performance from a mostly digital set-up.
And when she raised her keytar triumphantly at the end of Face Up, her silhouette hovering over a projected image of clouds, the young performer showed the sort of elegant confidence that emanates from an artist who will likely be around for a while.
Hold on to those Wonder Woman outfits, girls. She'll be back.