Lucy Dacus @ The Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 20 Apr

Lucy Dacus brings the ambitious songs from her 2018 sophomore album Historian to a sold out crowd on her first trip to Glasgow

Live Review by Tony Inglis | 23 Apr 2018

Little did the tightly-packed, sold out crowd crammed into the basement of The Hug & Pint know that the heat they were experiencing in that small-in-size but big-in-stature room would, in about 12 hours, translate to Glasgow’s first truly glorious day of sunshine and warmth this year. But, before going ‘taps aff’ would be deemed respectable for once, there's the not-inconsiderable chance to witness a young songwriter and performer fully hit her stride.

Virginian Lucy Dacus is barely 22, but with her impressive 2016 debut No Burden, and this year’s winding, explosive, step up Historian, she's one of the most confident and fast-rising musicians in indie rock.

With this being her first show in the city, Dacus wastes little time ripping through her best songs, with all but two from a concise but stacked set coming from her recent record. She opens with Addictions which, in under three-and-a-half-minutes, exemplifies the jump Dacus has made from her promising emergence, building from a poppy start to a rousing climax. It, and other Historian tracks, are missing the swelling horns and extra layers of density they have on record, but it loses none of its heft. In fact, it’s Dacus’ gift to effortlessly move from sounding small and diaristic to grungy and ear-shatteringly loud that is most stirring tonight.

Onstage, Dacus herself is quietly powerful. She can seem bookish, but when she sings and speaks she is anything but, commanding the stage and leaving most of the talking to the songs themselves (other than the now obligatory Trump reference from touring Americans, quipping “I know, America sucks,” met with complete consensus).

Pillar of Truth, Dacus’ paean to her late grandmother, and the raucous Timefighter are songs that are far too big for this room. It’s sometimes hard then to parse her words in a live setting when she is so ably backed by guitarist Jacob Blizzard shredding next to her and most of our attention is transfixed on the music. But with the sprawling multiple movements of main set closer Night Shift, everything locks into place: a break-up song with biting kiss-offs and the musical thrill to match.

She returns for an encore of the organ-led ballad Historians and leaves the stage. But it’s clear that Dacus will be back, probably playing to bigger rooms and bigger audiences which match her scope, talent and ambition.

http://lucydacus.com/