The Grammy-winning, Virginia-born singer-songwriter’s lively set arrived as another heat wave hit, though extreme temps did little to dampen an enraptured audience’s spirits. Review, photos.
‘First Time’: Lucy Dacus played that appropriate song and much more during Monday’s concert. (Photo/Holly Holtzclaw)
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Ten years ago, nearly to the day, Lucy Dacus graced the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park for the first time, opening for indie powerhouses The Decemberists in July 2016.
On Monday, the singer-songwriter-guitarist returned to the venue, this time in the driver’s seat, commanding the stage for a rapt, full audience that skewed significantly younger than the amphitheater’s standby crowd.
She acknowledged the full-circle moment and gratefully reflected on how far she’s come before launching into “Nonbeliever,” one of several requests fulfilled for the evening.
Dacus — who’s earned significant critical acclaim and respectable commercial success, both for her solo work, and for being one-third of the super-group boygenius with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker — and her band delivered 80-plus minutes of the charming/dark/playful indie-folk with which she’s made a name over the last decade. An 18-song set ran the gamut from slow-and-brooding to sweet-and-upbeat(ish).
Standouts included a gut-wrenching rendition of “Thumbs” — another request, this time delivered while seated on a Victorian-esque blue couch that was carried on-stage midway through the show. “Bullseye,” a duet with Conor Murphy, of show opener Smidley, was another score, as was 2015’s “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore” and Dacus’ latest track, “Planting Tomatoes.”
Powerhouse show closer “Night Shift” elicited the expected enthusiastic response, as the sun sank behind the trees, and the beautiful light and stage direction illuminated an artist and band on the ascension.
Smidley, led by the aforementioned Foxing singer Murphy, kicked off the evening with 40-ish minutes of indie-rock. The brief, energetic and well-received set included one song with Dacus joining the band on stage to sing, prompting Murphy to shout Dacus out for her willingness to “blow (her) entrance”: “No other artist would do that.”
But as Dacus demonstrated — in words and artistry, and in the atmosphere she and her band created — this show was a space for inclusivity, community care and equity, with little room for ego or hierarchy. A refreshing vibe in 2026, no doubt.
UP NEXT AT MEIJER GARDENS’ SUMMER CONCERT SERIES: Trampled by Turtles with Kindred Valley, performs at 6:30 P.M. Wednesday, July 15. The show is sold out.
PHOTO GALLERY: Lucy Dacus, Smidley at Meijer Gardens
Photos by Holly Holtzclaw
