Working With What You've Got - D'Lourdes at Baby's All Right

photo via @D’Lourdes on Instagram

6.28.26 - Brooklyn, NY

In NYC Pride’s final hours (though Pride is never truly over), D’Lourdes, a self proclaimed anxious, gay rockstar, took the stage at Baby’s All Right. In their fifty minutes of stage time they transformed the back room of Baby’s into a pulsing nucleus of queer energy, anger, and joy. 

Brooklyn based band Franny Menace opened first, bringing a punk rock energy that would continue throughout the night. With slightly muddled vocals, the guitar took center stage with solos in multiple songs, definitely the shining star of the set. Before covering MUNA’s “Silk Chiffon”, lead singer Sydni Dichter proclaimed “we’re a pretty gay band so we’re gonna play a pretty gay song”. 

Armed with her heart shaped guitar, Janna Jamison took the stage next. After a few solo songs she was joined by singer-songwriter and longtime collaborator, Mackenzie Shrieve. The two traded verses and harmonized for the remainder of the set, hitting fans hard with intricate melodies and self-exposing lyrics. 

Photo by Liv Canova

At the stroke of 9 pm D’Lourdes stepped onstage and immediately brought insane energy and intensity. To say that this audience was engaged would be an understatement. At the very start of the set, audience members were handed disposable cameras to capture their experiences. The ensuing flashes punctuated the rest of the night, a testament to the uniqueness of this show. At various points throughout their occupation of the stage D’Lourdes asked questions and encouraged loud answers, gave a fan a free drink ticket, stage dove, and started a dance circle. After laying down and singing in the middle of the dance floor they made their way back to the stage, parting the crowd like a gay, Filipino Jesus.

One standout moment of the night was during “Get Hurt” when they invited two friends from the crowd to join them onstage as backup dancers. The leather clad dancers donned black sunglasses and jammed to the song as D’Lourdes oozed seductive energy.  

After a powerful cover of Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing in the Name” the artist asked fans “Does everyone feel appropriately angry? Does anyone feel inappropriately angry?”. Intense cheers answered both of these questions. Additionally, they posed the strange request to either opener for a replacement guitar, revealing that their guitar player had played so hard that they broke a string.

The night was ended with a rousing rendition of their most well known song, “How Did You Get So Good?” (known better to those on TikTok as the ‘Fuzzy Duck’ song). 

While they have the charisma to play Madison Square Garden, the D’Lourdes experience was only enhanced at a smaller venue like Baby’s where they could get up close and personal with each and every person in the audience. This artist is a force of nature and to see them live was the experience of a lifetime.