I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: April 16, 2025] Lucy Dacus 

I have seen Lucy Dacus quite a few (six) times and she always puts on a mesmerizing show. The first time I saw her was at Johnny Brenda’s (capacity 250), the most recent was at Union Transfer (capacity 1200).  And now here she was starting off her first tour after boygenius in her former home town of Philadelphia by playing The Met (capacity 3800).

And, wow, did she step it up for this bigger venue.  She had a gigantic backdrop designed to look like a museum wall.  There were picture frames and columns and it looked amazing.  And even this was presented theatrically as for the openers and for Lucy’s first song, the whole extravaganza was covered in a dropcloth.  The band even walked through the dropcloth opening at the center of the backdrop.  When it dramatically dropped away, the crowd went nuts.

And as she sang, one (or more) of the frames would display a picture that had something to do with the song she was playing.

Because this was the Forever is a Feeling tour, she played mostly songs from that new album (she played the whole album, but not in order).  The album opens with Calliope Prelude and so did the show.  It’s a short instrumental which is primarily strings and it worked very nicely as “walk on” music.

And then she launched right into Hot & Heavy, a song that opens quietly but builds really nicely to get the whole band involved.  I was surprised that she hadn’t opened with a song from the new album, but she followed that up with five songs in a row from it.  The band includes Sarah Goldstone (keys vocals), Dominic Angelella (bass), Alan Good Parker Guitars), Phoenix Rousiamanis (violin), and Ricardo Lagomasino (drums).

First was Ankles, the big single from the album–I’m always surprised when bands play their new single so early, but it worked to keep the energy up.  This also happened to be the first Lucy album I hadn’t listened to much before the show.  So I didn’t know these new songs all that well.  But Lucy is engrossing as a performer.  And it’s fun to hear a sing for the first time in a live setting.  Like hearing the words to Modigliani–while she projected a Modigliani painting on the screen.

Unsurprisingly, I enjoy Lucy’s more uptempo songs, and this album has a lot of slower songs.  But I enjoyed Talk and, yes I was really excited when she jumped back to the previous album for VBS, a fantastic song with a great heavy metal section.

I thought it was a really nice touch that when she introduced the band, they projected paintings of each member in a frame as they said their name.

After the wonderful Best Guess, a couple shouted that they had just gotten engaged.  This event seems to have inspired Lucy to get a minister’s license and performing wedding ceremonies on stage.  It didn’t happen at our show, but it definitely laid the ground work.

After a couple more new songs the crew brought out a blue couch.  A few years ago she pulled a disc in her back and performed a whole bunch of shows on that tour while lying on a couch.  This nod to that unusual situation was really sweet, with Lucy sitting back on the couch and playing some quiet acoustic songs.  The biggest surprise in this section was that she played I Don’t Want to Be Funny Anymore, an old rocker from her early days.  But here in this acoustic style, the song didn’t lose any of its impact, it just came in a different way.

She had recently released Bullseye as a single.  Sadly, Hozier didn’t come out to sing the duet with her, but Katie Gavin did and it was fun to see her again.

The full band came back and she played three more songs from the new album.  The final song was the title song, Forever is a Feeling.  The song ends with the repeated chorus and fans held hearts over their phones.  Lucy seemed genuinely touched by this (I’ll bet it looked cool).  She sang the final words, did a little dance and left the stage through the museum doors.

A few minutes later she came back and sang the boygenius song True Blue.  She told everyone that she was allowed to play it because she wrote it.

The night ended with the moment that I was waiting for.  Lucy has always played Night Shift, often as a set ender, but in recent years it has become a show ender, and the crowd is 100% swept up in the way the song builds from an embarrassing moment to one of the best passive-aggressive breakup songs (and definitely the catchiest passive aggressive breakup songs).  I never get tired of hearing it and hearing it live is always an amazing experience.

My daughter and I had a delightful time.  True, Lucy has matured into a much more gentle singer than the Lucy I first encountered seven years ago, and I definitely don’t enjoy the slower songs as much, but Lucy is such a sweet and charming woman and clearly, everyone else there was absolutely blown away by her.  And that’s pretty great.

♥ Forever is a Feeling (2025)
Ô Home Video (2021)
ℵ 2019 (2019)
⇔ Historian (2018)
⊗ No Burden (2016)