Lucy Dacus Keeps It Simple in Cleveland: Review

The Grammy award-winning artist stopped at the Agora on a run of headlining shows that began with her release of Forever Is a Feeling in 2025.

by Julia Lombardo | Jul. 21, 2026 | 10:00 AM

Lucy Dacus on a stage with blue lights, holding a guitar

Photographed by Sarah Gormley

On Monday night at the Agora, Lucy Dacus is soft-spoken with a calming, yet assertive presence. On the second leg of a tour supporting her 2025 album, Forever Is a Feeling, a refreshed setlist includes more of her discography. Since the year began, she’s graced stages spanning from New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration, to Millennium Park with the Chicago Philharmonic. This Cleveland concert marks her first show in the city since 2022.

Dacus has been making powerful, heartfelt solo music for more than a decade that touches on themes of love, heartbreak, independence and empowerment. One of her most recognized songs, “Night Shift,” is a rock-adjancent banger that’s made alternative music charts and been the soundtrack of trending videos online. She’s also been a prominent figure for her steadfast representation of the LGBTQ+ community in her music, but gained much of her commercial visibility for her part in Boygenius. The musical collective, composed of Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, quietly released a self-titled EP in 2018, then later returned with The Record in 2023, an album that earned the trio three Grammy awards.

In “Not Strong Enough,” the song on The Record that got Boygenius two of its three Grammy awards, Dacus famously repeats the lyric “Always an angel, never a god.” The phrase made headlines around the song’s release, which Dacus and the group addressed across several interviews as commentary on women’s portrayal in both the music industry and society in general. They’re always dainty, emotional and “docile,” as Dacus puts it in a conversation with BBC; never bold, candid or — to be blunt — taken seriously.

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So, it makes me feel slightly submissive to describe her show on Monday night within the exact mold that she and Boygenius want to break. It is emotional, without being too heavy; it’s cathartic, but far from intimidating. She stands centered on a bare stage with no interpretive visuals and no props beyond a lone couch and a few white frames — just some colored lights and a five-piece band providing drums, guitar, violin and other sound effects. The group’s chemistry is palpable, swaying and dancing to the rhythm of their own instruments and feeding off each other’s gentle energy. Slept-on tunes like “Fool’s Gold” and “Strange Torpedo,” which Dacus connected to her earliest days playing venues like the Grog Shop, brings out the truest fans and tests everything the musical ensemble is capable of, from bass-heavy riffs to dreamy acoustic strings.

“Planting Tomatoes,” her most recent release, is vibrant and playful with experimental sonics, while other newer tracks like “Best Guess” feel like a warm hug, with the lights dimming to shades of pink and orange. Dacus dedicates the latter, a slap-you-in-the-face love song, to those in the room that aren’t currently in love.

“Because you deserve it,” she remarks kindly while sipping on a cup of tea.

The set is simple, but I don’t see that through a meek or modest lens — rather, in a way that showcases the art that female musicians like Dacus naturally hold within themselves. Though she has the accolades and the starpower to come in at full force, Dacus doesn’t rely on flashy production and viral hits to prove herself to a crowd, nor does she really need it.

Lucy Dacus at The Agora, July 20, 2026 Setlist:

“Hot & Heavy”
“First Time”
“Ankles”
“Modigliani”
“Strange Torpedo”
“Planting Tomatoes”
“Talk”
“Limerence”
“Big Deal”
“Fool's Gold”
“Cartwheel”
“Bullseye”
“I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore”
“Best Guess”
“Lost Time”
“Forever Is a Feeling”

Encore:

“True Blue” (Boygenius song)
“Night Shift”

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Julia Lombardo

Julia Lombardo is the editor of Cleveland Magazine’s home and style section and contributes to coverage of arts, culture and dining. She graduated from The Ohio State University in 2023 with an English degree. As both a journalist and poet, she is inspired by stories with creative flair. When she puts down the pen, she enjoys going to concerts, ranking coffee shops and walking aimlessly through wooded trails.