Lucy Dacus performed Wednesday evening in the CFAC auditorium, accompanied by two openers: Sun June and Liza Anne. The concert started at 8 and lasted until 11:30—over three hours long.

Liza Anne and her band started off her thematic set well with the punky song Paranoia. The lyric “my nervous mind is stuck inside” is a recurring claustrophobic sentiment in many of the group’s work. One song, titled “Panic Attack,” highlights Anne’s own struggle with panic disorder, and she said to the audience that the song had “saved her life.” The song ended with the mantra “Think slowly, try to remember I’m alive my body is here and I am inside” slowly fading into silence.

Sun June started strong with strumming guitar, melancholy vocals and a yearning for driving down a lonely road at night. Their song, Monster Moon, sings of regret for a lost love, but hope for something new with lyrics like, “Baby I got a secret/I’m a monster/Come January I’ll be your moon.” Nearing the end of their set, Sun June sang a new song that vocalist Laura Colwell said hadn’t even been recorded yet. The song, “Once in a While,’ rippled with a subtle hope, singing “Once in a while we could be what we wanted to be.” 

Around 10:00, Dacus started her set with an intimate rendition of her newest song, “Fools Gold,” which was released the next day as a part of her new EP, “2019.” The album centers around the passing of time and holidays, where Dacus creates an atmosphere that celebrates and laments the human condition through the year. “Fool’s Gold,” in keeping with the holiday theme, is her tribute to New Years. 

The favorite of the night was certainly “Night Shift,” an admittedly angry song about a past relationship. Dacus and her band rocked out hard as the bass made the seats vibrate, with cheers from the audience. 

Dacus also performed an acoustic song for the audience, one that she wrote at 16. The song “Trust” is from her debut album. In contrast to the broken past of “Night Shift,” the song concerns a budding relationship, with the lyric “If beauty is the only way to make the nightmares go away, I’ll plant a garden in your brain and let the roots absorb the pain.” 

Nearing the end of the concert, Dacus played one of her most popular songs, “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore,” as the audience sang along. Jokingly throughout her set Dacus said the massive auditorium made her feel as though she was in a middle school talent show.  Dacus actively said throughout the night she was changing the set list.

The night ended with Lucy Dacus inviting Liza Anne to the stage for a momentous cover of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”, described as a “spooky bop” by Dacus.  Afterwards, Dacus stayed for the traditional Q +A.