Lucy Dacus at The Fillmore San Francisco

Monday September 27th, I made my way to the historic Fillmore music venue in San Francisco, originally built in 1912, featuring greats like Jimi Hendrix, The Who and The Grateful Dead. Tonight’s show was in support of Richmond, Virginia’s singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus and her Home Video Tour. Dacus’ third album, Home Video, released this June after lockdown, is a descriptive autobiographic album that addresses young love and explores her time growing up and coming out as bisexual within a strict Christian community. Lucy’s storytelling is so vivid, honest and upfront. You can feel every emotion and heartbreak bringing you on a journey through her life.

Strap in your seatbelts and get the tissues ready.

Arriving at The Fillmore, guests were lined up for the sold-out show in typical San Francisco fashion: rain jackets and umbrellas, because Karl the Fog brought some light rain. It was nice to see so many guests early right at doors, because that usually means that the opener is just as good as the headliner. For tonight’s portion of the tour, the opener was indie rock band Palehound, fronted by Ellen Kempner, a singer-songwriter from Boston who also plays in a band called Bachelor. Tonight, the three-piece all-gay trio went all out, as it was their last night as opener on the tour. The bass lines were heavy and the guitar driven lyrics were inspiring. The band played a lot of songs from their 2019 album Black Friday, like “Worthy”, “Killer” and “Sneakers”. Between songs, the band mentioned how much fun they had on the tour and how honored they were to be a part of it.

During the break, as guests went to refill their refreshments, stop at the merch table, or use the restroom, there was a small projector screen on the curtain behind the stage playing Lucy Dacus’ real home video on a loop as the stage was prepared. Finally, the iconic Fillmore chandeliers dimmed and the band came onstage followed by Lucy. The crowd went wild. To open the show, Lucy Dacus started with “Triple Dog Dare” off the new album. The song starts off slow, with somber melodies, but, by the end, picks up with the full band; the whole crowd was singing the last line, growing with excitement.

The entire set continued on like this, with fans singing along.

Towards the end of the set, the band brought up Palehound to join in on harmonies for the song “Going Going Gone” and thanked them for their time on the tour. The set closed out with Lucy’s popular breakup song “Night Shift” and fans really let it all out, singing every word and ending with a thunderous applause, which brought on an encore, leaving fans with a new song. All in all, it was quite the emotional journey, thanks to both bands’ heartbreaking and descriptive lyrics. Even though the songs were sad, I think fans left feeling happy, refreshed and knowing they are not alone. Don’t miss Lucy Dacus coming to a city near you, as the tour is only at the halfway point and heading east!

Photography by Katey Schoenberger

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