Lights are currently conducting her 2026 Come Get Your Girl world tour supporting her sixth album release — A6 — and she made a recent stop at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC!
The evening’s concert contrasted well with hard rocking grunge openers Softcult, who played predominantly a very dark stage set-up in contrast to Lights’ full-throttle, non-stop light show. The contrast for the evening made for a very unforgettable concert and performances by both bands. Fans were very noisy during the concert singing, dancing, and clapping heartily to both bands.
Soft Cult, with their hard-driving dark music, started the show on March 11 in fantastic form, playing an outstanding opening set. Softcult has great sound for such a young band and will continue getting better with time. The band is led by sisters Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn from Canada and just released their first album, When a Flower Doesn’t Grow, this year.
Watch the official music video for “Not Sorry” by Softcult on YouTube:
Lights is Valerie Anne Poxleitner-Bokan — from Timmins, Canada. Poxleitner-Bokan is a highly talented musician with fantastic vocals and lyrics moving effortlessly on stage throughout the 90-minute performance. Her ability to blend great lighting, which was very dynamic, with her musical artistry makes for one of the best dance-based performances in the business nowadays. Her performance actually gets better as she gets six or seven songs into the set and then she moves more specifically mingling with the crowd and exhibiting more perfected dance moves.
Poxleitner-Bokan opened the set with her new song “Come Get Your Girl” released late in 2025, which celebrates the journey she has previously traveled on to the current version of herself. The song has great lyrics and vocals, and helped set the fast-paced, dance-oriented concert that was played at the 9:30 Club followed by a great version of her song “River.”
Watch the official music video for “Come Get Your Girl” by Lights on YouTube:
Poxleitner-Bokan took a few songs to warm up, then, while dropping her jacket, expounded the set further with great songs, dance, and movement throughout the stage along with her great guitar work and musicianship from her bassist and drummer. Poxleitner-Bokan emphasized the dance movements and aesthetics during the concert by having small table like platforms selectively placed on stage that she used to stand on and sit and stretch on during various stages of the set. These platforms put her above the crowd and allowed her to accentuate specific dance moves and aspects of select songs. This had the effect of taking her out of the blend of the stage and band and allowed fans to see her more definitively.
Some of the finer moments from the show were the night’s version of “Piranha” and “Take it Easy,” where Poxleitner-Bokan threw paper airplanes to the crowd during the song. “Damage” was also one of the best songs of the evening getting great fan applause and arguably my favorite song during the evening was the playing of “Surface Tension” close to the end of the show. Lights have a way of drawing you into the song and not letting you out.
However, the most inspirational song from the evening may have been “Alive Again” from 2025 with the following lyrics that exudes many possible meanings but encouraged the fans at 930 Club to just enjoy the night of great music and live in the moment:
“This might be the night that I die
And I don’t want to die alone
So come a little closer
I don’t even need to know your name”
Regardless of the meaning, the fans took it to heart rocking out hard during the great song.
Before finishing off a stellar concert, Lights advised fans that “you have made this one of the best shows of the tour.”
Lights is currently touring Canada and will be in Europe starting May, and if you love inspirational, dance-style music played in a rock club setting this is a show you should highly consider going to see. Lights is a fantastic musical experience.
Setlist
1. Come Get Your Girl
2. River
3. Ghost Girl on First
4. Running With the Boys
5. You’re Killing Me
6. Timing is Everything/ Flux and Flow/ We Were Here
7. Love Me
8. Batshit
9. Final Round
10. Piranha
11. Take it Easy
12. Toes
13. Damage
14. Prodigal Daughter
15. Okay Okay
16. Believe
17. Surface Tension
18. Same Sea
19. Alive Again
20. Up We Go
21. Education
Here are some photos of Lights performing live at 9:30 Club on March 11, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of James Todd Miller.
Here are some photos of Softcult opening Lights at 9:30 Club on March 11, 2026. All pictures copyright and courtesy of James Todd Miller.
