Finally got round to seeing Lucy Dacus play live this evening, with the eldest of the Little progeny in tow.
The show was very good, and Night Shift did not disappoint, but I was completely blown away by the performance of Thumbs, a song I’ve heard many times before but which seemed to gain extra dimensions when sung live. Such a simple thing, so beautifully written, so spare in its arrangement. Single spotlight, the whole room holding its breath.
“You two are connected by a pure coincidence
Bound to him by blood, but baby it’s all relative”.
One of the more powerful live performances I’ve seen in a while, and quite unexpected. A true four minute novella, and a ripple right across the audience.
Has anyone else found a song transformed by hearing it live?
The offending article.
It’s a great song and very unsettling…
Oh wow! I can imagine that this live must have been incredible.
I dad-taxied the kids to this on Thursday night and took myself out for dinner while they went. They were full of excitement at having heard Thumbs live. If you’ve never heard the Song Exploder episode on its creation, it’s well worth seeking it out: it took a lot of midwifery to get it to that perfect minimalism.
Anyway, I wish I’d been at the show. The kids saw Julien at Earth last year, and narrowly missed out on bg tickets at Gunnersbury park a couple of years ago. I absolutely love everything about what youngest refers to as the BCU, though the newest Lucy record hasn’t grabbed me quite as hard as the others.
No way! Oh man, it would have been lovely to see you, even if just a wave at the Dad taxi ❤️
Not heard the Song Exploder episode, but will check it out. Fascinated by this sort of minimalist songwriting, there’s a lot of it about at the moment.
It would’ve been lovely to see you, man. I hope the Bingolets had a blast!
‘I keep a close watch on my heart’ is a fabulous song. I knew it first via Peter Gabriel’s cover. So much so that, when I went to see John Cale I wasn’t expecting it to be his encore. (About 3 years ago?)
Wow.
Just wow.
Shocked and stunned. I know you like a cover version, Retro, but I assumed that you would have known the original (being of a vintage, etc).
Sorry about my feet of clay…..
Well – you know that I put you on the “guru” pedestal…
FWIW, “…Close Watch” is in my all time top 10 – so few lines but such a profound effect. Cale’s a genius.
I had a similar Cale epiphany when I saw him play Close Watch in an old church on the coast in Bari, many many many years ago. Likewise “The Thoughtless Kind”
Agnes Obel does a really nice version of “Close Watch”, too.
She certainly does! My favourite is, however, the gloriously lachrymose version by Dean Owens, the Nightjar of Leith:
That Dean Owens version is indeed superb.
But for me nobody sings it as well as Cale himself.
I should update that, following @fitterstoke and his withering comments, I have now purchased Cale’s Helen Of Troy from Discogs. (Or, rather, planned to, electing instead for the 2cd Island Years set, which contains most the songs anyway. For 1/2 the outlay. £3.)
“Withering”? But you’re my guru…on a pedestal…
Pedestal today, pole tomorrow…..
Thanks for the thumbs up for Lucy. She’s playing Roskilde on Saturday so I must try and see her.
Believe it or not, this year, my son is tagging along to Denmark.
Here is the artist he most wants to see, BIGXTHAPLUG.
He is on just after Lucy, so that should be a tiny bit of a contrast.
A song that was transformed live?
Anais really knows how to deliver a song..
I love it when this happens! A song that you have enjoyed & appreciated can suddenly come to life live & changes how it is listened to forever after.
A couple of times that spring to mind for me on this;
1) Seeing Elbow perform Great Expectations. The lyrics are really evocative & delivered fantastically, but it needed me to see it live for that to drop
2) Young Fathers doing their track Wow. The first time I saw that live had me shook! The power of it just meant it clicked
I wasn’t at this but, man alive, do I wish I was. The Boygenius crowd really do know how to make good and interesting music.
I’ll listen to this later but I love this song. The version I know is just solo piano or her Turn Out The Lights album. A great vocal.
Her new country-ish album with Torres is very good indeed.
Have been trying to score a ticket for Lucy Dacus in Manchester (avoiding the Viagogo and Ticketmaster burglars). No joy so far but your post has only made me keener. Her new album is one of the best I’ve heard this year and Ankles a brilliant song to follow up on Thumbs….
Love Ankles! I would definitely keep trying, I really enjoyed the show.
And as if by magic one just popped up on Twickets and I managed to get in first. Looking forward to it….
Outstanding! Have a great time and be sure to report back. Hope you get the same magic.
I’ve been listening but the new one hasn’t quite hit the spot just yet. I very much like the previous album Home Video – the one with Thumbs.
My first thought was of when I saw Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan perform the songs from the O album in the National Stadium, Dublin. I’d heard some of it on the radio but live, the intensity and the chemistry between them was palpable, not to mention the perfect blend of voices. They were supporting Aimee Mann who watched their set and said with genuine, not the usual fake, humility “how do you follow that?”
I couldn’t find a good enough link so instead I’ll nominate this one instead by the great Roddy Frame. It was a track that completely passed me by without connection on the album of the same name. It was too long and overproduced with that 80s wine bar jazzy vibe about it. Hearing it in a more stripped down form was a revelation. I didn’t even recognise it. I think it was at this recording. Now I think it’s my favourite song by one of my favourite artists…
Another has come to mind. Buoyed by hearing their version of “Just as the Tide is Flowing”, I took to 10,000 Maniacs like a duck to oranges, I gobbled up those early releases. When they can to Brum, to the Alexandra, I think, I had to go. Early 80’s, I’m guessing.
The sound was pretty murky and muddy, but it was good just to be there. It all changed for the encore. Minus band, Natalie Merchant came back and, accompanying herself on piano played the most pin dropping “Verdi Cries” ever, totally eclipsing the recorded version.
By chance, watching Jonathan Ross on telly, late night and a few years later, she was a guest:
Dacus reminds me of Natalie Merchant, and Tracey Thorn as well – they all have gorgeously mellow alto/contralto voices and beautifully expressed songwriting. But of course she is her own woman doing her own thing.
We’ve had several examples of songs which have benefitted from being performed with less instrumentation.
Here’s an example of the opposite. Adding a brass marching band to Road to Nowhere gave it an exciting new lease of life.
I could easily imagine it being played by a marching band on the streets of New Orleans.
How easy it is to forget. The wonder of Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1975 was the transformation of their music when played live. Every track was a revelation. None more so than No Woman, No Cry. Just listen to the crowd.
Most Springsteen tracks are better live. Wilco also.