Lucy Dacus / And the Kids / Adult Mom at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (04 April 2018)

Mom, And the Kids, and a darling from the recent SXSW Music Festival in Austin—

“The irony is not lost on us” singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus would say about the eclectically-named three band lineup spotlighting her first headlining area appearance, a near-familial musical gathering before a long anticipating sold-out crowd at the 7^th Street Entry in Minneapolis. 

The evening would start a short set from Steph Knipe aka Adult Mom, who borrowed one of the “kids”, Hannah Mohan, to play guitar alongside a live drummer. An endearing lo-fi bedroom pop singer-songwriter, Soft Spots (Tiny Engines Records) was released last year, with new music forthcoming. 

As a means of tuning up the trio riffed on The Cranberries’ ‘Linger’ before starting properly with the short ‘Paws’, even working with the Twitter-requested and oh-so-appropriate ‘The First Day of Spring’ mid-set and acoustic, its lyrics reflecting the snow that happened outside on the season’s first day. 

Sporting a dress acquired the day before at a Goodwill in Des Moines (“the city that never sleeps” the New Yorker joked), her demeanor and Liz Phair-esque vocal delivery won over the crowd, especially on ‘Be Your Own 3AM, which found longtime fans singing along.

“I have to do some yoga first” guitarist/vocalist Mohan said after a brief set change and entrance of her band And the Kids, and the crowd wasn’t sure if this was part of the show, or just some needed stretching, but it turned out to be the latter as Mohan mentioned recent headaches from frequent couch sleeping. 

The Northampton, MA band describes their own sound as “unconscious, accessible, existential, indie, glitter, popsicle, crisis” music and that’s as good a description as any, as evidenced by latest full-length, Friends Share Lovers (Signature Sound Recordings) and more recent single, ‘2003’. 

The mostly college-age crowd responded to the opening lines of ‘Glory Glory’ – “I’m a drinker, I blame it on the Lord” and though their band was short-handed (continued visa issues with their Canadian synth player), they still made the most of their forty minutes, all solidly anchored by drummer Becky Lasaponaro, even bringing Lucy Dacus’ sound engineer up, to help play their final song.

Still in her early twenties, Lucy Dacus is already showing a musical maturity, years beyond her actual age.  The Richmond, VA singer-songwriter is touring in support of her second full-length, Historian (Matador Records), an album of leaps-and-bounds growth for her, that is the exact opposite of any sophomore slump and she seemed genuinely happy to be headlining here, after previously opening for Car Seat Headrest and Hamilton Leithauser. 

Dacus is so confident in the new album (considering it her definitive musical statement), the first seven songs played were all from the new record, beginning with single, ‘Addictions’.  Her seemingly calm voice belies a building sound and lyrics that dive deep into wells of adversity, though provide a glimmer of hope in any darkness.

Dacus laughed off missing a lyric in the new ‘Nonbeliever’ before getting serious again with ‘Yours & Mine’, dedicated to Richmond youth-serving non-profit Art 180, of whom she mentions their mission and was taking donations at the merch table for.   

The collective body heat of a full crowd caused Dacus to shed her fogging-up glasses before the self-contemplation of ‘Next of Kin’ and the set’s true centerpiece was the new ‘Pillar of Truth’, a somber song about her grandmother’s death that begins with simple verse then gradually spreads its musical black wings like a raven over a spanning cornfield.  

Things got conceptual on the one-song-split-into-two ‘Dream State…’ and ‘…Familiar Place’ then came back to earth with 2016’s ‘I Don’t Want to Be Funny Anymore’ declaring with lyric “I’ll play guitar and I’ll be the artist”. 

Things went back to the start for the set’s last song, as in ‘Night Shift’, the opening track from the new record (and the only break up song she’s ever written), resonating with many in the crowd, who sang along poignantly “You’ve got a 9 to 5, so I’ll take the night shift, and I’ll never see you again if I can help it”. 

The one-song encore was fittingly the new album’s epilogue, its title track sung sparingly to a completely hushed crowd over an electric hum as Dacus wondered aloud, ‘If past you were to meet future me, would you be holding me, here and now?”

As an ideal soundtrack to comfort in any loss, Lucy Dacus has captured a collective feeling of current times- a darkened journey told with grace and nuance that confronts all its truths and fears, and still yields hope through any strife. 

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