Lights and Sirens rocks hard on sunny stage at Nooner concert

Vu Chau
April 6, 2016

For the first time this semester, UNIQUE Programs hosted one of its series of weekly Nooner concerts at the stage outside the University Union and Serna Plaza on Wednesday, April 6.

The change of venue gave the week’s performers a chance to rock out to their true hard rock and alternative sounds on a grander, though less intimate, stage.

Formed in 2013, Lights and Sirens is a local rock band whose music got its influences from fellow rock bands such as Thrice, Incubus, Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive and Saves The Day.

With Brittany Vanessa on vocals and rhythm guitar, Tony Ledesma on drums, Chris Scott on guitar and Joe Stein on bass, the band said it is bringing what the rock music scene has desperately needed for years: a freshly dynamic and diverse sound.

Nik McGarey, manager of Lights and Sirens, said that lead vocalist Vanessa has always known the ideal type of music she wanted to play with her own band.

At the concert, the band played a number of original songs from their demo EP that was released in February, as well as a few covers from other artists.

“We’re emotional people,” Vanessa said during the concert. “We need songs that tell people what we’re going through, [because] we’re not alone. People sometimes also feel what we feel.”

In the middle of some tracks, a few audience members stood up and freely moved their arms to the rock tunes that were being played, while the rest seemed to never stop nodding their heads to the rhythm of every song.

“Visually, a queer, black, female, front woman in a hard rock band, on electric guitar is uncommon,” McGarey said of Lights and Sirens’ uniqueness. “And to some extent, groundbreaking.”