A couple years ago I happened across Toronto artist Lydia Ainsworth, and was immediately captured by her orchestral electro-pop. Since then, I hadn't had a change to see her play live, but with a new album, Darlings of the Afterglow, out last month, she came through town with a stop at the Fox Cabaret.

Unfortunately, I missed the opener Nashlyn, arriving just before Lydia Ainsworth started her set, almost abruptly, immediately launching into the first single from the new album "The Road". She was on vocals, joined only by a percussionist on a drum pad with some backing tracks, for a somewhat minimalistic setup. Her haunting voice filled the room as she played the album almost entirely in sequence, with songs like the swirling "What Is It?", or "Open Doors", which starts at a whispered hush before bursting into a grandiose ending. She also included a few older tunes, like the pulsing "Malachite".

To go along with her dark electro-pop, the lights pulsed and flashed along with the rhythm of the songs, and there were also two interpretative dancers on stage for a majority of the songs. Clad in only black robes and featureless white & silver masks, the dancers flowed behind and around Lydia, never quite touching her, almost as if they were haunting her. They were on and off stage, but there for most of the songs, up until they unmasked at the very end. Between them and the lights, the whole thing felt like a very well-rounded aural and visual performance.

The all-too-short set came to an end as Lydia claimed she had one song left, building to a big finish with "I Can Feel It All", but she remained on stage by herself for the "encore", as she left us with her chilling cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game".

setlist
The Road
What Is It?
Afterglow
Open Doors
Spinning
Into The Blue
WLCM
Nighttime Watching
Malachite
Moonstone
I Can Feel It All
(encore)
Wicked Game [Chris Isaak cover]