Lucy Dacus Sells Out The Met Philadelphia
Show review ★ Natalia Rodriguez ★ @iffypanic ★ 700 words
Starting off with a beautifully somber bang, Lucy Dacus began her Forever Is A Feeling tour – a name shared with her most recent album released in March – at The Met Philadelphia on April 16th with musical support from jasmine.4.t and Katie Gavin. The iconic opera house was at its max capacity of 3,500 concertgoers and tucked all the way in the literal furthest mezzanine seats was me. Attending the concert as a gift for someone else, I am admittedly a more casual fan of Dacus herself and very loosely aware of the two openers. But above all else, I am a lover of the arts and specifically queer art.
Lucy Dacus
All three acts present themselves as members of the queer community and each of them had words to show care surrounding the ever present political climate looming over us. jasmine.4.t bringing up the struggles of the trans community, Katie Gavin doing the same on top of humorously expressing her identity as a lover of women, and before coming on stage, Dacus making the announcement that – among a charity for the LA fires – that a dollar from every ticket on this tour would also be distributed to the Ally Coalition. A message that was also tacked on with an invitation for the crowd to donate as well to enter in a raffle for a signed setlist.
The bottom line, the common denominator of everything present that night was love. Very literally almost every song in Dacus’ set that night was about love. Songs of platonic love, songs of past love, songs of present love – melancholic, raw, and real were the lyrics in each piece. Playing her titular album Forever Is A Feeling in its entirety, she also performed six additional songs from her past discography – one of which being True Blue from her previous act boygenius.
With songs like Talk and Night Shift, it was nice to hear a tonal shift that was darker and heavier contrasted with Dacus’ pretty and light vocals. Every song was played to complete perfection, sounding just as amazing and clean as her studio recordings. Songs Forever Is A Feeling and Most Wanted Man made their live debut at this show, much to the delight of the eager fans in the crowd. And speaking of eager fans, there were a couple of interactions between Dacus and the audience, but the most prominent being a couple getting engaged during Best Guess. The screams brought enough attention for Dacus herself to congratulate the couple and retroactively dedicate that song to them. Celebrating the happy communion before diving into the next song For Keeps, a gut wrenching song about unavailable and confusing love.
Multiple songs on the setlist surely led to wet eyes throughout the audience, throughout the show. As a casual fan, I can’t even deny some songs bringing me to tears with some songs like Bullseye – performed with opener Katie Gavin in place of Hozier’s original vocals – and Partner in Crime being stripped back acoustic numbers. A lavish blue chaise lounge was brought out during Dacus’ set, ever so delicately changing the set dressing of the stage.
The set to begin with was beautiful, following the art museum aesthetic already in place from Forever Is A Feeling’s promotional material – the back wall of the stage had massive screens accented with frames as if each picture was a painting. They changed with every song – mostly displaying thematic art – but with Lost Time, the screens acted as windows and showcased a cloudy sky with rainy ambiance. The design and direction for Forever Is A Feeling as a whole was clearly just so lovingly particular and intentional. A special kudos to Dacus herself as well as everyone behind the scenes in charge of that.
Dacus goes to show her bleeding heart in all of her music, resonating and reflecting with those in attendance. Love is at the center of her music. Her love of performing, her love of the craft, her love of love. It’s a beautiful thing and I believe that everyone with the ability to do so should check out one of her shows. Lucy Dacus’ Forever Is A Feeling tour continues between North America and Europe all the way up through September.
