Lucy Dacus on Doing a Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Show to End Her ‘Forever Is a Feeling’ Cycle, After Previously Bringing the Boygenius Era to a Close There: ‘Maybe It’s a Place Where I’m Supposed to Cry’

Feelings are transitory things, of course, and some of the good ones must come to an end, which is why Dacus is commemorating the end of that era Sunday night with a show at the Hollywood Bowl that will find her accompanied by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra as well as her touring band. There won’t even be a mid-section where she sends all lthe string and horn players off to take five while she just performs with the band; it’s going to sound lush — and/or, as she promises, “weird” — from start to finish. Variety spoke with Dacus in the final stages of preparing for this show, discussing what she learned from an earliier incarnation of an orchestra show she did in Chicago; whether she was actually taking requests for this gig; how it feels to return to the site where Boygenius last performed together, three years ago; her side gig presiding over weddings; performing for Mayor Mandani’s inauguration, and much more.

Recently on social meida you posted a billboard that you or someone took out that said, “Forever is coming to an end,” or something like that. But hopefully not in real life. Is that how you’re thinking of this Hollywood Bowl show, as the grand climax to an era for you?

Yeah, it’s the last show of “Forever Is a Feeling,” and I really don’t have many plans ongoingly, which kind of freaks me out. But I do feel like I need to mentally understand that it’s over in order to make anything new. So, I think I’ll be really emotional on the day.

I love symphonic shows with the artists I love. I just was at the Bowl and I saw Foo Fighters with an orchestra. I’m looking forward to yours more, but it was fun still.

We’ll keep that between us. Anyway, you have had a head start now on this, having done an orchestral show in Chicago. Does that make it feel like, you have this aced, it’s gonna go great, we already had a test run on this?

I never realized that the musicians don’t look at the material until the day-of, usually. And you get one rehearsal, which is soundcheck, and they’re all just pros and they’re sight reading. That really freaked me out because usually with the band, we’ll practice for a week or more before a tour, and that’s only five people.