Words and Photos by Katherine Cardinale
Last month, Lucy Dacus closed out her headline tour in support of her most recent record, Forever is A Feeling, at The Stone Pony Summerstage in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It was the perfect day to have an outdoor concert, as the sun was shining outside all day, and the cool temperature made for an ideal night.
At precisely 5:30PM, the venue opened its doors to fans from not only New Jersey but all over the East Coast. From Philadelphia to New York City, the crowd was a perfect representation of the diversity that can be found in the tri-state area and its neighboring states.
The evening kicked off with an electrifying set from indie-rock artist Smidley, aka Conor Murphy of Foxing. The project’s name derives from Conor’s beloved black lab mutt who has since passed away. Smidley immediately captured the attention of the crowd with “Another Devil,” the lead single off his sophomore album, Here Comes The Devil. He also played a number of songs off his upcoming record, Murphy Horse, including “People Like You,” which is unreleased, and “Capstone,” which features Lucy Dacus. During the latter song, Smidley invited Lucy onstage to perform the song with him, which of course made the audience go wild. The set concluded with “Love in Every Direction,” which was unreleased at the time but officially dropped on all streaming services on July 29. Before exiting the stage, Smidley encouraged the crowd to purchase physical editions of his forthcoming album.
Next up was Ratboys, an indie rock group from Chicago, Illinois. The group’s lineup has changed a few times since their formation in 2010 and currently consists of Julia Steiner on lead vocals and rhythm guitar; David Sagan on lead vocals, pocket piano, and bass; Sean Neumann on backing vocals, bass, and synthesizer; and Marcus Nuccio on drums, percussion, and synthesizer. Their most recent album, Singing’ to an Empty Chair, was released on February 6, 2026. They opened their set with the first track, on that album, Open Up, and the momentum continued with exciting live renditions of “Anywhere” and “Penny in the Lake.” The group also played songs from older projects, such as “The Window” and “Go Outside.” It was heartwarming to see that a number of people in the audience were at the show to see Ratboys in addition to Lucy.
As the night went on, more fans entered the venue in anticipation of Lucy Dacus taking the stage, and at precisely 8:53pm, that’s exactly what happened. Following “Calliope Prelude,” which is an instrumental track, Lucy and her band launched into “Hot & Heavy” off her sophomore record, Home Video. Fans jumped around and sang along to the song’s upbeat tune. They were encouraged to sing even louder when Lucy began tearing up, emotional due to this show being the last one of this tour.
Over the course of the night, Lucy and her band played an array of songs from her entire discography, which is very common to experience at a Lucy Dacus show. Some of the best setlist surprises of the night included “Nonbeliever,” “Fool’s Gold,” “Cartwheel,” and “Afraid of Heights,” which are all arguably deep cuts and therefore songs that the audience was elated to hear live. Another fun moment was when Conor Murphy (Smidley) was invited back onstage to perform “Bullseye” in place of Hozier, who is the featured artist on the studio recording of the song. Of course, the evening wasn’t complete until Lucy and her band returned to the stage to perform a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.” This was especially fitting for this particular evening because Bruce is from New Jersey and has an album titled Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., and Lucy’s father, who was in the audience that night, is a big Bruce Springsteen fan.
I have seen Lucy Dacus twelve times now, with seven of those times being during the Forever Is A Feeling era. From her acoustic show at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn last February to her recent Planting Tomatoes Music Video Premiere and Q&A in New York, Lucy is always an incredible musician to see live. I am impressed by Lucy’s ability to captivate her audience, no matter how big or small it is. From co-headlining Madison Square Garden as a part of indie supergroup boygenius to playing intimate churches and museums to softlaunch an album rollout, no venue is out of Lucy’s performance range.
This show wrapped up an incredible era for Lucy, but there are still a few more times to see her live this summer. You can still catch her festival sets at Outside Lands in San Francisco, California and Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, Washington. She is also playing an extra special show at Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California; this show will feature the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and support from singer-songwriter Cat Power. You can experience Forever Is a Feeling live by purchasing tickets to any of those shows here.
