It’s hard to imagine droves of people showing up for an all-locals show, even amidst Richmond’s current musical renaissance. But First Friday at the National was anything but a typical night as Lucy Dacus performed her largest homecoming show to date at The National alongside My Darling Fury and Spooky Cool.
It’s hard to imagine droves of people showing up for an all-locals show, even amidst Richmond’s current musical renaissance. But First Friday at the National was anything but a typical night as Lucy Dacus performed her largest homecoming show to date at The National alongside My Darling Fury and Spooky Cool.
Even Dacus herself was taken aback by the experience, remarking to the crowd between songs, “I wonder if there’s people in here thinking, ‘oh, what happened to that little solo artist in that coffee shop?’”
If the crowd’s response was any indication Richmond is ready for its artists to take center stage, even if it means reckoning with the almost parental pains of fleeting hellos and all-too-soon goodbyes as they set off for their next adventure.
While Lucy Dacus saved a few surprises for her hometown show, debuting new material and newer approaches to her old songs, My Darling Fury and Spooky Cool’s sets were polished spotless to round out an evening of premiere artistry from some of RVA’s most revered acts.
Pop-prog band Spooky Cool (seen below) started off the night with precision. From dense vocal harmonies to mathy guitar breaks, the quintet packs songs worth of material into each of their compositions without sounding disjointed or too busy. One precise movement develops and crescendos before shifting — a key change, an unusual rhythm building into yet another crescendo.
In typical form, the enthusiastic crowd, determined to show appreciation for the band, began to clap along one point — but then quickly lost the beat as Spooky Cool surprised with a perfectly timed tempo change.
Building on the intricacy and depth of Spooky Cool, art pop trio My Darling Fury immediately took command of the audience with “A-OK,” a boldly vulnerable song from their 2016 EP Aches.
Formerly five members and now a trio that builds a still impressive wall of texture sounds, their music recalls the electric (and electronic) abandon of Yeasayer, combining percussive synth hits, driving bass and Afro-Cuban influence.
Vocalist Danny Reyes is just as likely to bare his feelings on relationships in soaring, clear falsetto as he is to belt out declarations and frustrations of politically navigating life as a gay man. As Reyes two-steps to the beat, he demands, proclaims and pleads, putting his audience to task and driving the group to massive heights with his versatile voice.
While Spooky Cool opened Dacus’ album release show at the Broadberry earlier this year, this also wasn’t the first time Lucy Dacus and My Darling Fury had played a show together. Around mid-set, Reyes (seen below) reminded the audience that they had played together a year ago in the backyard of Yesterday’s Heroes, a local vintage shop across the street from Lamplighter Roasting Company’s Addison Street location.
“She’s really taken the world by storm,” Reyes said proudly to accompanying cheers.
While the intimacy of those early gigs still shone through, both My Darling and Dacus have each gone through an evolution of new line-ups and new influences to bring them to the National’s stage that evening.
The anticipation for Dacus’ ascent to the stage was electric, the tension building in the room as the venue continued to fill close to capacity.
A series of Paper Mache sculptures (made, as Dacus noted, by friend Bethany Allen) adorned the stage, rising up like ancient rock formations contrasting the National’s velvet splendor. When the band finally took the stage, the crowd shuddered and erupted in disjointed cheers of “Da-cus! Da-cus!”
Characteristically, Lucy stepped onstage and began the set alone on the stage, quietly entreating her audience with a soft guitar strum. As she finished, the crowd roared.
Humble as always, Dacus smiled, at one point commenting, “I feel like it’s my birthday.”
Shouts of appreciation and love once again accompanied before the band swayed into “Green Eyes, Red Face.”
Dacus’ fine-tuned set included some of her most popular songs off of this year’s debut release No Burden, but also expanded into new, unheard territory for her Richmond performances. Highlights included “Strange Torpedo,” and, of course, an encore performance of “I Don’t Want to be Funny Anymore.”
But it’s clear Dacus (seen below) and her band has developed since her last sold-out show at the Broadberry. Songs she’s played countless times over show subtle changes, including the addition of organ-like guitar woven into “…Familiar Place” and a new, textured guitar arrangement on longtime closer, “Pillar of Truth.”
Most notable was her encore debut of a new song. Dacus clearly has begun to push herself into new territory for her sophomore record, exploring a higher vocal range while her band’s backing showcased the strengths of each member more pointedly.
In this new song a heavy resignation hung over the lyrics, as she described a parting from a lover. “I feel no need to forgive, but I might as well,” she sang. A light lit her from below, silhouetting her face as if she were holding a flashlight, about to tell us a late night confession.
Her usually buttery vocals soar into a mournful wail as she sang the last few bars of the chorus, breaking into a full band arrangement: “You’ve got a nine to five/so I’ll take the night shift/and I’ll never see you again/if I can help it.”
Her final sentiment is an acknowledgment of pain with a wry sense of hope, a detaching sense of humor amid the pain of parting: “In five years/I hope these songs feel like covers/dedicated to new lovers.”
Richmond has seen Dacus grow in the years she has performed here, from intimate sets at Helen’s to these soaring new heights showcased at The National. There’s a delight in seeing an artist hone their craft which with many concertgoers in the city are undoubtedly familiar.
Yet Dacus now performs national stages, and her development has expanded far beyond Richmond. In as much as Lucy Dacus has belonged to Richmond, there’s something bittersweet in watching her grow outside the bounds of RVA, and a feeling of familiarity with a pleasant shock of novelty, and strangeness.
From Friday’s show, it’s clear Dacus has begun a new path of discovery, as she explores puts in the hard work to hone her craft and take it to the next level. We all surely cannot wait to see what she has in store.
