Song Spotlight: Lucy & La Mer's I Feel Better Now

I first came across Lucy & La Mer (the moniker for Lucy LaForge) in 2017 at Chinatown Summer Nights. I was immediately sold. And she must have been sold on my photography, because every so often I'd get asked if I wanted to shoot a show. 

Lucy & La Mer at Hotel Ziggy

I covered the band for Buzzbands during 2018's Echo Park Rising. If you click here you can see a photo I took as well as an amusing quote made during the set

Venues shut down and there was a long gap before I caught another set. That drought ended last year. I got a message from LaForge asking if I wanted to head out to the LA County Fair to shoot her set. I hadn't been to the county fair in over a decade as it really isn't my thing, but I was all in. I will admit I nearly freaked out that I would end up missing the set. Once I got off the freeway, traffic slowed to an absolute crawl. Luckily, I had a press parking pass so at some point I was able to turn right while everyone else was turning left and I got onto the fair grounds with time to spare.

Lucy & La Mer at Hotel Ziggy

I recently caught another set. I've got to say that post-2020 has led to a couple very memorable encounters with the band. What made this 2025 so memorable? I noticed that Lucy & La Mer was playing a set. Off I went to the venue and when I got there, I realized that I was an official Wedding Crashing. The band was actually playing as part of the wedding's after-party entertainment. The bride, thinking I was one of their photographers, handing me a photo pass. Awkward.   

Okay, the above is my twist on the night to make it sound more interesting. The night was actually both a wedding after-party and a WFNM showcase at Hotel Ziggy. The reason for the combination of events was that the groom is one of the sound guys for WFNM, Blake Edmondson. Initially, it was a touch awkward, because the first group up was the Edmondson family -- a musical family. The venue was packed with wedding guests dressed to the nines while I was in jeans. What is not an exaggeration is that the bride did give me a photo pass.  

LaForge knows both the bride and groom. She mentioned prior to singing "I Love My Dog" that she had worked with Edmondson at Guitar Center. For the song "Palm Springs", she mentioned that she had played a Palm Springs festival and the bride was a dancer at the festival. 

Lucy & La Mer at Hotel Ziggy

As for the song spotlight, I do have a favorite song that was part of the setlist for a couple years during my early years of knowing the band, but it seems to have been retired so I'll set it aside. "I Feel Better Now" is just as good (though I say first song encounters are hard to over-look). Long time fans know that they're expected to join the song every time the word "going" is sung. The proper response from the audience is: Go Go!

The song is the perfect representation of LaForge's musical and lyrical contrary combinations. It is a cheerly folk-pop song that hides more painful lyrics:

Well it takes a whole lot longer
than you think to hit rock bottom

The song title does indicate that life is on an upwards trajectory, but it involved dealing with a lot of pain before getting there.

Setlist: I Feel Better Now, Ice Cream, Not A Phase, I Love My Dog, Palm Springs, Stand By Me, The Same, You Still Owe Me the Moon.