LUCY DACUS WITH CROOKS AND NANNIES AT NEIGHBORHOOD THEATRE

Photos and Writing by Lee Flythe

The Lucy Dacus show at Neighborhood Theatre could have been a disaster. Half an hour before the show was set to start, the band’s bus driver decided to go AWOL and took off with the bus and all the band’s belongings. This obviously threw the entire touring apparatus into disarray. Lucy, at 8pm when the show was scheduled to start, came onstage and just plainly told the audience what was going on….”The bus driver just ran off with all our stuff, and we don’t know what’s gonna happen”.

Meanwhile, most of the Neighborhood Theatre staff, the opening band, and anyone connected to the venue or the band with a car was driving around NoDa and the surrounding areas looking for the missing tour bus. In an interesting twist, one of the band members utilized their iPhone to track their AirPods, and voila, the bus was located. All the searching vehicles then honed in on the location (near a junkyard, not far from the venue) and retrieved the personal belongings of the band members from the bus driver who apparently didn’t want to be their bus driver any longer.

And while the crazy-bus-chase scenario was playing out all over NoDa, Lucy was at the venue, reluctant to keep her audience waiting. She returned to the stage shortly after 8 with a borrowed acoustic guitar and began a solo acoustic set. The music was raw and endearing, as Lucy found her way through songs typically performed by the full band. The audience was rapt, silent, and attentive……hanging on every word……aware of the uniqueness of the situation, and soaking it up to its fullest.

After a couple of songs, the bus fiasco was sorted, and the show was able to get back on schedule. Lucy concluded her solo performance, and yielded the stage to Crooks and Nannies, who put on a stellar and high-energy performance.

Following Crooks and Nannies, Lucy and her full band took the stage and rocked the packed house for a solid hour or more. The band’s set built to a crescendo, which culminated in members of the opening band joining them onstage for what seemed like the final song, but then they broke into a final set of songs including their most popular work, and the excitement just built. They capped the night with a Bruce Springsteen cover as an encore.

I was told after the fact that the band Ubered to their hotel that evening, then back to the venue early the next morning where a new bus from a new bus company with a new bus driver was waiting to continue the tour.

This show was quite and adventure…….and definitely unique.