Concert Review: Lucy Dacus (Ritz Raleigh)

BY CHRIS HOCKER

What a year it's been for Lucy Dacus. Her third album, Home Video, landed near the top of everyone's year-end 2021 lists (including ours). She's been on tour seemingly nonstop since its release. She brought her Home Video victory lap to Raleigh's Ritz on October 3rd. Originally scheduled for the Lincoln Theatre, that location quickly sold out, so it was moved to the much larger Ritz.

It's a good thing they changed venues because there would have been a lot of disappointed fans. There were people in every inch of the Ritz. After an opening set by The Original Crooks And Nannies, Lucy hit the stage at shortly after nine.

Lucy was as charasmatic and sounded as great as she did the first time we saw her. Along the way, we found out that she attended Vacation Bible School twice in Raleigh. She performed Home Video heavy hitters "Hot & Heavy," "VBS," "Christine," and "Brando" in succession and played ten of the album's eleven tracks before the night was through. The Original Crooks And Nannies joined her onstage to perform the singalong "Going, Going, Gone" with her. She even played recent single "Kissing Lessons." The set ended with one of the best set-closers of any band, "Night Shift." Hearing the crowd scream the end of that song with Lucy is something you've got to hear.

Lucky for us, Lucy's dad was in the audience because she treated us to a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark" and dedicated it to him. Finally, Lucy played an unreleased song to close the encore, a different one than the one she played last year when she rolled through. She told us that "Thumbs" was a song that used to get played at the end of encores before finally ending up on Home Video.

Lucy Dacus is performing at the Neighborhood Theatre tonight, October 5th. If you live in the area and tickets aren't sold out, be there.

[message]

CHRIS HOCKER, Editor

Strange Carolinas started as a hobby for Chris Hocker who often dragged his family to offbeat detours on family vacations. Hocker decided to start photographing and writing about these roadside attractions and in June 2014, launched Strange Carolinas with a story on Myrtle Beach's KISS Coffeehouse. In addition to chronicling over 400 attractions across the Carolinas, Strange Carolinas has also become an impressive music blog.