Singer performs surprise pop-up show at meet and greet at her hometown record store Boo Boo Records
By Christianna Marks
The small stage at Boo Boo Records was taken over by country music star and San Luis Obispo native Dasha on Thursday, Oct. 17. The “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” singer was originally slated to do a meet and greet mixed with a signing the day before her sold-out show at SLO Brew Rock Event Center the next night. Instead, she also decided to grace her family, friends, and fans with a small acoustic concert that started at 4 p.m.
“Today was, I mean, so cool,” Dasha told Morro Bay Life at the pop-up. “I love playing my songs acoustic like this because it’s how I wrote them. It’s fun having my brother up there on stage with me; even though we didn’t really know what we were doing, it didn’t matter; we were just having fun.”
Dasha pulled her brother, Bardo, up on stage to perform with her. Together, they co-wrote a bunch of the songs off her album, but the singer-songwriter joked that she showed him everything else about 30 minutes before the show. Dasha added that the sibling duo hadn’t been able to perform together since her career has taken off. The mixture of their sibling chemistry and the way Dasha interacted with the people there to watch her made it feel like everyone was friends and like you knew her, even if you didn’t.
“It was fun just getting to be very human with everybody here and a lot of people I already knew, so it was fun to just say ‘hey.’ My middle school ASB teacher was here, and my sixth-grade teacher was here, and random people like that,” added Dasha.
The short set was filled with multiple tracks from Dasha’s second studio album, “What Happens Now?,” which came out in February. A couple songs into the setlist she was making up on the fly, Dasha performed her platinum single, which also won Female Song of the Year at the People’s Choice Country Awards, “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” for the room full of fans of all ages. The young fans in the audience, of which there were many, were taught the viral TikTok line dance that Dasha and her friends made up and posted online, shooting the song to international fame.
“I’ve been a fan of Dasha since she ever came out with the song ‘Austin,'” said young San Luis Obispo student Jillian Buchanan. “At the start of the year for school, Miss Ahearn, our teacher, told us that like she was a celebrity and, that she had her as a student, and that she’s just a super great person in general. We were just super excited to hear that and how cool it was that a celebrity grew up where we lived. It was so cool. This is my first time meeting an actual celebrity, so I’m happy, and she’s just a nice person.”
The music set took a break for the meet and greet, where Dasha met her fans and said hi to her family and friends who had come out to support her. She also took pictures and signed everything from her album on vinyl and CD to a young fan’s boots.
“She’s just super nice in general, and when she signed my CD and my boots, she was just really nice about it, and she gave me a big hug and stuff. I was just happy to meet her,” stated young fan Chloe Musolff.
Gus Flusser, a college student from Cal Poly and a huge Dasha fan, made a huge effort to make it to Boo Boos. Until the pop-up, he had no idea that the singer was local to the area.
“I told my boss I have to skip work early,” added Flusser. “I know we have a meeting, but I needed to be here, and it’s been amazing. I’ve learned so much.”
Everyone who stuck around after the meet and greet was rewarded with a duet of “Talk of the Town,” between Dasha and her friend and SLO firefighter, whom she co-wrote the song with. He had been on a call earlier when she played her initial set, and she pulled him up on stage once he got back. The song was not only written by the two, but also about them.After the song was over Dasha took photos with the entire fire crew.
“She’s not only from here; for me, we grew up with her family. Our kids are the same age in high school, so we’ve known each other since they were out of the womb. So, it’s particularly pleasing and amazing,” said Mike White, owner of Boo Boo Records. “[I’m] so stoked that she came back to her hometown and had a show in her hometown record store. That’s the best.”
The pop-up concert was also a treat for fans who were not able to snag tickets to her sold-out homebase show the next night, including myself. And with a more intimate setting, what a treat it was.
“It’s really surreal because I always came in this record store as a kid to find the vinyl, to find the CDs that I wanted to buy, thinking about, ‘Oh, one day I’m gonna have a record in here,’ and now I do,” Dasha said. “It’s really, really, really surreal coming back and meeting people who are here and fans who are buying my records. It’s insane.
“It’s crazier when it’s your hometown. It just hits different. This is my first time back since everything has happened. So this is like extra, extra surreal.”
You can find Dasha’s album everywhere music is sold or streamed, or for more information and tour dates, go to, itsdashabitch.com.
Feature image: Dasha (right) performs “Talk of the Town” with a friend and SLO city firefighter (right) during a pop-up concert at Boo Boos Records. Photo by Christianna Marks.
