LUCY DACUS — MANCHESTER, UK.
Lucy Dacus at the Academy, Manchester, UK.
with support from Jasmine.4.t.
When I first arrived at Manchester Academy to see Lucy Dacus, I honestly wasn’t sure how well suited the venue was going to be. I’d always felt there to be such an intimacy to Dacus’ music that, when I listened to it, it almost felt like I was being let into a private room and hearing a conversation between two people that really trusted each other. I have to say though, I was wrong, I’ve never seen a show this large feel so intimate.
The support for the night was Manchester’s own, jasmine.4.t (well, born in Bristol but based here now). If I’m being honest, I wasn’t sure about this set in the first couple of songs, but the last few songs really did win me over. The music wasn’t too dissimilar to Lucy’s, but with added theatrics in the form of expressive belting and screams over violins. I had a bit of an emotional rollercoaster throughout this set - I went from feeling like I was getting a hug from a friend to feeling like I was about to cry to being completely taken aback by the utterly raw emotion I could feel from the last song. Part way through the set, there was a speech about a friend of the band, Yulia, who had been arrested as part of The Filton 18 (a group of protesters who broke into Elbit’s hub in Bristol and dismantled Israeli weapons) and a ‘Free Palestine’ chant. It’s so, so good to see artists still using their platforms to speak out for Palestine, especially due to the current discourse surrounding Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury set.
Lucy Dacus’ headline set began beautifully with the growing crescendo of violins in the ‘Forever is a Feeling’ opening track, ‘Calliope Prelude’, which led perfectly into the second song of the night, ‘Hot and Heavy’ (from my personal favourite album of Dacus’ - ‘Home Video’). There was a brief stop during the song as the band saw someone looking unwell in the crowd. This unfortunately did happen a few times later too as it was an incredibly hot day, but every time it did, the band called out for help, and it showed how much Lucy genuinely seems to care about the people that come down to watch her shows.
The crowd sing-along started as soon as Lucy started singing, and the next few songs did a dive into her latest album, the previously mentioned ‘Forever is a Feeling’. ‘Ankles’ was first - and the mist behind Dacus in this song was reminiscent of an 80s music video ballad or a Stevie Nicks performance. The lyrics, ‘What if we don’t touch? What if we only talk about what we want and cannot have?’ take me back into the previously mentioned intimate energy I get from Lucy’s music, here feeling like the audience is in on an awkward bedroom conversation, but it’s comforting too, like you’re not alone in all the awkward thoughts and feelings you’re embarrassed to say out loud. Her voice, even more so live, has such a comforting quality to it, like a cup of tea at a friend’s house after a long day.
This was actually my first solo gig, and I was honestly quite nervous going in, but what a good one to have as my first one. Not only did I feel safe from the stage and how friendly the crowd was, the performance itself was pretty immersive too. The back wall of the stage showed a collection of frames hanging from the wall, which were incorporated throughout the set in a really creative way, whether with backdrops for scenery to go with each song, or with the ‘Modigliani’ portraits of the bands members during the band introductions, referencing her song of the same name. I also honestly have to say, whoever did the lighting for the show deserves a raise. During a stripped back performance of ‘Limerence’ later in the set, Lucy herself even complimented it and thanked the lighting tech for making the stage look ‘so pretty’.
‘Talk’s orange lighting and mountain backdrop made it feel like it could’ve been a part of the Twilight soundtrack, and I mean that in the best way possible. ‘Fools Gold’ was played in a stripped down setting with the band circled around, reminiscent of a campfire. ‘I don’t wanna be funny anymore’ was performed in a similar setting, but with warmer lighting, almost like a hopeful scene from a coming of age drama, after a plotline where everything’s gone wrong.
The whole show was honestly a piece of theatre in itself, yet simultaneously felt more like a local show than anything I’ve ever witnessed on this large of a scale, even in the aspect of friends doing features. During ‘Bullseye’, Lucy brought out Jasmine (aka jasmine.4.t) wearing a wig, after announcing the feature as ‘the one and only - Hozier’s cousin’.
The last couple of songs were crowd favourites, starting with one of Lucy’s songs with Boygenius, ‘True Blue’. I hadn’t had the chance to catch Boygenius on their show at Piece Hall last year (and I was gutted about it), but from this, I can tell it was probably ethereal. The set ended with Lucy’s most well known song, ‘Night Shift’, but what a way to end the set. The song was dedicated to anyone going through a breakup, and ended with static TVs in the frames fading out.
I left the show not only wishing for more shows where I felt like I was in the company of friends, despite being in a room of strangers, but also loving Lucy Dacus even more than I already did.
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