Gus Dapperton takes 4 Dear Life to the Southgate House Revival Sanctuary

The indie-pop songwriter's fourth album is barely three weeks old, and his March 16 date across the river in Newport is a 500-capacity room built inside an 1866 church.

Stained glass, a pipe organ, and dance-pop about holding on. That's the setting for Gus Dapperton's Tuesday-night stop in Newport this spring.

Dapperton plays The Southgate House Revival's Sanctuary on Tuesday, March 16, 2027. The show starts at 8:30 p.m., and tickets are through TicketWeb. It was announced Oct. 26. The Sanctuary holds about 500, which is small for an artist with Dapperton's streaming numbers, so don't sit on this one until March.

The tour is named for the new record. *4 Dear Life*, Dapperton's fourth studio album, came out Oct. 23 on ALTER Music, according to The Line of Best Fit and Melodic Magazine. The title comes from the phrase "holding on for dear life," and the guest list includes Ledbyher, A-Trak, spill tab and hard life.

Clash gave the album a 7 out of 10. Its review hears Dapperton looking for hope and relief in an unstable world through community, partying and connection. Clash also says the album moves away from the glossy hooks of his earlier work into eleven upbeat, danceable tracks. It comes three years after *Henge*. So if your idea of Dapperton is the dreamy bedroom-pop kid, the March show may move a little more than you expect.

An album about holding on, played inside a church built in 1866.

The room deserves its own paragraph. The Southgate House Revival occupies the former Grace Methodist Episcopal Church on East Sixth Street in Newport, built in 1866, per Wikipedia). It opened as a venue in fall 2012, after the original Southgate House down by the river closed in 2011, Ace Weekly reported at the time. The church's main hall became the Sanctuary, keeping the stained glass and the pipe organ, while the old upstairs children's space became the Revival Room and a smaller Lounge sits behind the stage. It's one of the more distinctive rooms anyone plays in the Cincinnati area, and it suits an artist who likes his shows a little theatrical.

For a lot of Cincinnati people, Newport is a bridge away. A Tuesday in mid-March doesn't usually call for crossing the river. This one does.

The practical part: the music starts at 8:30, and on a school night that's enough time to grab dinner on the Kentucky side first. Tickets are on sale now.

Few rooms around here make a dance record feel like a congregation. The Sanctuary might pull it off.

Sources: Gus Dapperton announces new album 4 Dear Life and shares Queen - The Line of Best Fit (thelineofbestfit.com); Gus Dapperton - 4 Dear Life - Melodic Magazine (melodicmag.com); Gus Dapperton - 4 Dear Life review - Clash (clashmusic.com); Grace Methodist Episcopal Church (Newport, Kentucky) - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Southgate House to revive under new name, location in Newport - Ace Weekly (aceweekly.com); Southgate House revived - CityBeat (citybeat.com); Gus Dapperton - TicketWeb (ticketmaster.evyy.net); Gus Dapperton at The Southgate House Revival - JamBase (jambase.com)