Photo credits: Talia Lissauer<\/p>\n
Review by: Sadie Shelkey<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lucy Dacus has had a <\/span>lot<\/span><\/i> to write about these past few years. From a Grammy win and sold-out tour with Boygenius to her blossoming relationship with bandmate Julien Baker, it comes as no surprise that her new album is based around her recent experiences. \u201cForever is a Feeling,\u201d released in March, paints an introspective, intimate portrait of her journey through letting her inhibitions go in hopes of finding her \u201cforever.\u201d Last Sunday, Dacus shared this feeling with all 5000 faces in Fenway MGM Music Hall, taking the audience right along with her as she effortlessly navigated the setlist\u2019s tonal and musical shifts.<\/span><\/p>\n The show opened with a standout performance from Manchester-based artist jasmine.4t. Jasmine and bandmate Phoenix\u2019s voices blended incredibly as they stood alone at the center of the stage, harmonizing over stripped-back guitar and violin melodies. Jasmine\u2019s raw, meaningful lyrics shined in every song, and were made even more powerful by her offhanded mention of the recent UK Supreme Court ruling defining gender as assigned at birth. With hate having a forum in both their home country and our own, Jasmine\u2019s lyrics\u2019 focus on the gentleness of trans love and joy was especially poignant.<\/span><\/p>\n Jasmine\u2019s set was followed by Katie Gavin, performing songs from her debut solo album \u201cWhat a Relief,\u201d released last fall. As someone familiar with MUNA\u2019s indie-pop-rock sound, Gavin\u2019s music took me by surprise. Her performances channeled a folky Fiona Apple energy, and each song was elevated by her bandmates\u2019 phenomenal guitar and bass. While Gavin\u2019s whole set was amazing, \u201cCasual Drug Use,\u201d \u201cSanitized,\u201d and \u201cKeep Walking\u201d were standouts and crowd favorites.<\/span><\/p>\n When Lucy and her bandmates took the stage in business attire, it seemed at first like a continuation of the Boygenius era. But with two huge Greco-Roman pillars lining the stage and white tarp cloaking the back wall, the outfits took on new meaning, aligned with the \u2018classy art gallery\u2019 aesthetics of \u201cForever is A Feeling.\u201d This was solidified during her first song, \u201cHot and Heavy,\u201d when the tarp dramatically fell to reveal a rich red curtain covered with large gold frames.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the course of the show, these frames would become illuminated with visuals from medieval portraits to amazing landscapes to a blued-out Home Video screen. While Lucy\u2019s shows\u2019 scenic design never fails to amaze, this show\u2019s use of lighting and visuals were especially phenomenal \u2014 complimenting the vibes of \u201cForever is a Feeling\u201d while bridging with the aesthetics of her earlier work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dacus\u2019 performance echoed the visuals, effortlessly blending across genre and era. Even with booming, grunge-y songs like \u201cTalk,\u201d melancholy ballads like \u201cLimerance,\u201d and upbeat melodies like \u201cBest Guess\u201d all on the setlist, Dacus and her band perfectly mirrored the energy of each other and the crowd, seamlessly and gracefully moving through the tonal changes.<\/span><\/p>\n While these frequent vibe shifts were often unnoticeable, one in particular made for the show\u2019s best moment. After devastating the audience with an acoustic rendition of \u201cPlease Stay\u201d \u2014 Dacus\u2019 first time playing the song this tour \u2014 jasmine.4t emerged from the curtains dressed as Hozier\u2026 including a comically fake wig and beard. The still-teary-eyed audience couldn\u2019t help but erupt into laughter as Jasmine and Lucy sat down on blue velvet thrones to perform \u201cBullseye\u201d \u2014 Lucy\u2019s recent collaboration with Hozier.<\/span><\/p>\n Luckily, the concert continued without any more emotional whiplash, culminating in the title track \u201cForever is a Feeling\u201d and an earth-shattering encore performance of Boygenius favorite \u201cTrue Blue\u201d and the ever heart-wrenching \u201cNight Shift.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When \u201cForever is a Feeling\u201d was released, I feared it would be one of those albums that works better when listening at home and hanging onto every word. But coming from someone who has seen Dacus live before (both solo and as \u2153 of Boygenius), Sunday\u2019s performance at MGM Music Hall was her best yet. Her songwriting, musicality, and production all shined \u2014 and you\u2019d be hard pressed to find a single audience member too cynical to consider that maybe forever <\/span>is<\/span><\/i> a feeling, after all.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credits: Talia Lissauer Review by: Sadie Shelkey Lucy Dacus has had a lot to write about these past few years. From a Grammy win and sold-out tour with Boygenius to her blossoming relationship with bandmate Julien Baker, it comes as no surprise that her new album is based around her recent experiences. \u201cForever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21925,"featured_media":48221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[595,1920],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21925"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48187,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48161\/revisions\/48187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}