Now, what seems like a never-ending Winter, the return of -30 degree temperatures didn’t prevent Winnipeg pop fans from braving the cold for a night out at the Burton Cummings Theatre to see the all Canadian line-up of Lights, Dear Rouge, and DCF on the We Were Here North American Tour.
Photos by Samuel Stevens Photography.
DCF started the whole night with his “No Type Remix,” a popular song originally performed by the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, mixed with his lyrics, which was a great way to hype up the crowd, but to also show off his talent. He then performed his singles, “Sky Ferreira” and “John Cusack.” DCF then went onto explain the outfit he was wearing, the outfit of a Prince. This is because his social media are all “Prince DCF,” and that the outfit he was wearing was not an outfit from Hamilton or a Captain Crunch costume. He also explained that DCF stands for his initials, David Charles Fischer. He then ended his set by playing his new single, “Bring A Friend” and a cover of Paramore’s “Misery Business.”
Photos by Samuel Stevens Photography.
Second to the stage was the husband and wife duo, Dear Rouge. They began with the song, “Chains.” Danielle’s stage presence made you want to sing and dance along with them. She also wore a jacket that was fully tasselled down the arms. The band just released their second full-length album, PHASES, about a month ago. They performed the songs “Black to Gold,” “Tongues,” “Boys & Blondes,” and ended the set with “Little By Little.”
Photos by Samuel Stevens Photography.
Lights started her set out with “New Fears” and “Savage,” she then played some older songs, “Second Go,” “Toes,” “Up We Go,” and “Siberia.” After singing the song, “Moonshine,” she walked off stage and had the LED screen in the back show images from her comic book Skin & Earth, which is also the name of the album Lights is touring because the album and comic book coincide together. Both the Skin & Earth album and comic book, tell a story about a girl named En in a post-apocalyptic world, dealing with mental health -depression specifically- and tries to get the message across we need to take care of the earth as it’s the only one we have. While creating this comic book, Lights was able to explore her sexuality and had an epiphany that she is bi-sexual like the character in her story. Even the readers can learn more about Lights by reading Skin & Earth because En is pretty much Lights herself. Lights went on to take the show to a slower route by performing “Banner,” a cover of “Believe” by Cher, and “Muscle Memory,” all acoustically, before leaving the stage once again while more images of the comic book appeared again. While performing the song “Morphine,” Lights jumped down from the stage to between the stage and barrier to get closer to her fans and even shake the fan's hands. Once back on stage, Lights finally talked about her comic book, how she wanted to release something like this for a very long time, getting to the inspiring “quote of the night” that was, “Just do your shit because no matter your insecurities, sometimes you just, have to do it." Continuing on from her comic talk, Lights genuinely thanked everyone for buying tickets because Lights partnered with Plus 1, which takes $1 from every ticket sale to a charity of the musicians choosing. Lights for the Canadian dates chose a charity that helps out the government with environmental issues to help keep the Earth healthy. Lights ended her main set with the song, “Giants.” After a few minutes of cheering, Lights returned to the stage to perform an encore of two songs. After performing “We Were Here,” she talked about the time she met Burton Cummings at an airport when she was leaving the Juno Awards a few years back and how he sat her down to give her vocal tips that she still has on her phone’s notepad and appreciates him for it because they work for her to this day. She also continued on saying how she’s performed at the Burton Cummings theatre a few times, but I guess now with that story, it means a little more playing a venue named after Burton Cummings. Lights ended the show performing “Almost Had Me.”