On the heels of three Grammy wins as a boygenius member and the release of “Forever Is a Feeling,” her fourth studio album, Lucy Dacus returned solo to Beantown, headlining MGM Music Hall at Fenway for a pair of sold-out shows April 20 and April 21.
As a string-forward instrumental enveloped the venue for the second night straight, Dacus’ touring peers emerged from a staggering, tarp-covered structure. Backlit, their determined silhouettes approached the instruments scattered about the stage and freed them from their white-sheet prisons.
Then, Dacus herself — clad in a burgundy and navy striped rugby shirt — skipped out, acoustic guitar in hand, for the opening number, “Hot & Heavy,” to rapturous applause.
Dacus paced the length of the stage, strumming and singing about both a “friend … who used to be super reserved and is now very lively” and “[herself] from the perspective of someone [she] dated,” per a 2021 interview with Pitchfork. During the piece’s frenetic outro, two women stripped the show’s centerpiece — a massive maroon wall, flanked by Roman-style pillars and adorned with gold-framed LCDs — of its covering, eliciting an enthusiastic audience response.
Evocative paintings and looped animations populated these displays throughout the show, serving as eye-catching accoutrements to the Virginia-born singer-songwriter’s more measured on-stage presence.
While singing “First Time” and, at an attendee’s request, “Triple Dog Dare” — both from her acclaimed third album, “Home Video” — a dark blue gradient and a cassette tape, its reels spinning in the centermost frame, filled the screens. Later, during her newest album’s title track, they displayed fluffy white clouds that passed by quicker and quicker as the tune progressed.
For a brief portion of the show, a regal-looking lounge chair with a gold frame and navy cushions joined the pre-existing decor, serving as a hub for more intimate numbers like “Bullseye,” a duet performed with MUNA frontwoman and tour opener Katie Gavin. (Gavin provided some levity by donning a Party City-esque pirate beard accessory that raised more than a few eyebrows.)
Monochrome, hand-drawn sketches of dart boards, playing cards and archery bows appeared on-screen one at a time as they sang about a bygone relationship.
“I’ll miss borrowin’ your books to read your notes in the margin / The closest I came to readin’ your mind,” Gavin sang on her lonesome. Dacus harmonized with Gavin, their voices blending seamlessly, for the next few lyrics: “The answers to the questions only made more questions / I hope you’re never fully satisfied.”
Dacus saved the best for last, capping off her 90-minute performance with encore renditions of “True Blue” and “Night Shift,” fan-favorites off “the record” and “Historian,” respectively.
Thousands in the venue — including the sound crew members who monitored audio levels from the pit’s rear — sang along and swayed to the former: “And it feels good to be known so well / I can’t hide from you like I hide from myself / I remember who I am when I’m with you / Your love is tough, your love is tried and true-blue.”
Finally, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived: the crescendoing refrains of “Night Shift.”
“You got a nine-to-five, so I’ll take the night shift / And I’ll never see you again, if I can help it,” Dacus and the crowd (or, really, the crowd and Dacus) belted. “In five years, I hope the songs feel like covers / Dedicated to new lovers.”
Suffice to say, everyone’s vocal cords were strained beyond repair — but Dacus and her fans wouldn’t want it any other way.
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