After playing what feels like every smaller venue in the city, the time has finally come for Lucy Dacus to move on to the next big stage of her career so when she announced her current tour in support of her latest record Forever is a Feeling, it was only logical that she'd start to play big theater across the country. Even with her undeniable growing popularity, I was still somewhat surprised to see her announce two shows at the iconic Radio City Music Hall and definitely questioned how her rather intimate music would translate to such a large room. Understanding the jump in her career, Dacus has crafted a show that not only meets the hype of her fame, but goes further to suggest just how big she still could become. Decking the stage out in a massive backdrop complete with various video screens and ornate fixtures, this was a massive step up in production values that match her leap from clubs to big time theaters. Entering to the album's opening instrumental "Calliope Prelude" as her expanded backing band pulled sheets off their instruments to add to the grandeur of the set, Lucy entered to rapturous applause and immediately took the band into "Hot & Heavy," a fun rather throw-back moment to kick things off and have everyone jump to their feet in excitement of what was to follow in the night ahead of us. Recent single and album highlight "Ankles" sounded rich and full, taking up the entire space of the room and translating to the stage with epic proportions as it continued to set the tone of the evening. As renaissance and gothic portraits began to fill the screens behind the band, the mood began to set in as the band plowed through their set, firmly locked in with each queue hitting the mark and not once faulting. "Big Deal" was another early crowd pleaser that had a quiet echo flood the room as the empathic crowd couldn't resist in joining in for every song and really let their voices be heard during the softer moments of the night. Mentioning several times that there was an idea to add or take out some songs from the set list resulted in major cry outs from the audience, but all was ok once Dacus went into the opening of "Triple Dog Dare" and the crowd was able to relish in the moment as we dipped back to her older material just for a moment. Shortly past the midpoint of the show, an elegant lounge sofa was brought out to the center of the stage and things shifted to an even more acoustic focused portion of the night. Starting off with just two other band members on stage with her, Lucy finally began to address the crowd between songs and break from the constant, flawless transitions which allowed her to take a moment to acknowledge the venue in which she was playing and for her to reveal her humble thoughts towards being able to play such a legendary venue. As her band slowly rejoined her on the couch and surrounding area, she began to chuckle before asking for a special guest to join her on stage. While previous nights of the tour had Katie Gavin accompany her, this was a special evening as Hozier made his way to the stage to join Dacus on "Bullseye." Lucy's reaction seemed genuinely surprised, as if she too were feeling the moment to be utterly surreal, and the crowd ate up the entire performance as the two traded grins on the sofa. As things began to wind down, Dacus pulled the natural move of ascending the sides of the venue to make her way towards the mezzanine for a final moment before the encore. After what had already felt like a jam packed set, Dacus came back to deliver her penned boygenius number "True Blue" much to the building's delight before sending things off with a crushing rendition of "Night Shift" that felt monumental in the moment as the sold-out crowd overpowered the vocals for an epic sing a long to close out a major night.
Set list:
02 "Hot & Heavy"
03 "Ankles"
04 "Modigliani"
05 "Limerence"
06 "Big Deal"
07 "First Time"
08 "Triple Dog Dare"
09 "Talk"
10 "Come Out"
11 "Best Guess"
12 "For Keeps"
13 "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore"
14 "Please Stay"
15 "Bullseye" [with Hozier]
16 "Most Wanted Man"
17 "Lost Time"
18 "Forever Is a Feeling"
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19 "True Blue"
20 "Night Shift"
19 "True Blue"
20 "Night Shift"
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