It’s hard to imagine a sold-out Union Transfer ever feeling quite as cozy as it did for Lucy Dacus’ Home Video Tour, which made the cavernous Eraserhood venue its home Wednesday, October 20th and Thursday, October 21st. Literal home videos shot by Dacus’ own dad played on a theatre-size screen behind the stage in the half-hour leading up to Dacus’ entrance. For Wednesday’s show, the indie folk singer/songwriter took the stage in a dress resembling a prom gown for the most elegant of hippies. The performance opened with “Triple Dog Dare,” the most epic (just under eight minutes) tale of adolescence from her third and latest album, Home Video. Each of the album’s 11 songs — chronicling the loves, losses, and laughs of her formative years in Richmond, VA – were played that evening. And while covers of Edith Piaf’s “La vie en rose” and Regina Spektor’s “Summer in the City,” along with debut single, “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore,” and a yet-to-be-released song (which closed the show after the audience promised to put their phones away) were met with warmth, it was clear that it was the new record that people were there to hear. Standouts included the album’s first two singles. “Thumbs,” a chillingly explicit number about Dacus’ desire to murder her friend’s father, seemed to be not only the evening’s most cathartic moments, but also possibly the most vulnerable. The twee nostalgia of “Hot & Heavy,” on the other hand, likely provided the set’s bounciest and most lighthearted moments. The concert’s most beautifully devastating number, however, was “Christine,” an ineffably brief and weep-inducting (and it did…) ballad about being forced to witness beauty defiled before your very eyes. Although Home Video dropped late this June, the thousand+ in attendance treated each of the 11 tracks as if they were Dacus’ greatest hits, that had saved them half a lifetime ago… I’m not sure there’s more you can ask for of your new album…
