After a triumphant run with her band Boygenius in 2023, collaborating with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, their album The Record garnered all three artists their first Grammy win in 2024. Wearing matching suits with pink carnations on their lapels, the three of them ran up on stage to receive the coveted award, and following this event, Phoebe Bridgers vanished fully from the public eye while the newly married Baker and Dacus continued pursuing their solo projects.
Known for her distinctive lyricism and indie rock production, Bridgers’s 2020 album Punisher remains her last solo record, which followed her highly-acclaimed 2017 debut album Stranger in the Alps, and which she didn’t get to tour live until the Reunion Tour in 2022. During her time as an active user, Bridgers stated on Twitter in 2020 that it would take her a long time to release a record following the COVID-19 cycle of Punisher, and after a year of her being incognito, we all started to believe her.
Luckily, it appears that the 8 years she said it would take her to make another album turned out to be only 6. Early last month, Bridgers got back on the road and played smaller shows in towns that are constantly overlooked, such as Lubbock, TX, or Fargo, ND. I personally got the news from a local Instagram page from my hometown of El Paso, TX, @therealfitfamelpaso, when she kicked off the shows in Roswell, NM, which is only a couple of hours away from El Paso. All of the shows operated under the same system: the chosen venue would put up posters the morning of the shows, where people would then line up and receive wristbands for free admission on a first-come, first-served basis. The shows enforced a strict no-cellphone, smartwatch, or camera policy, with attendees receiving a pouch to hold their phone during the performance while Bridgers played her classics, deep cuts, and an average of four new and unreleased songs each show.
The morning of June 1, Bridgers announced a $1 ticket show in Madison Square Garden on the same principles but on a much larger scale. Playing the most famous arena in the world, Bridgers still ensured that her show would be intimate and accessible. She utilized a lottery system where anyone could sign up for a chance at winning tickets, prices ranging from $1 to $25, with %100 of the proceeds going to the Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund, which aids people who have been detained by ICE. At MSG, every fan was given a Yondr pouch to put their phones in, which would only unlock once the show was over, with a few unlocking stations around the arena for emergencies.
Following Phoebe Bridgers’s mainstream success over the last few years, opening for Taylor Swift and collaborating with artists such as SZA and The 1975, the aspects of connection and intimacy seem to matter greatly to Bridgers. Early morning, the day after she played MSG, she announced The Lost Tour she’ll be embarking on in the Fall, and, you guessed it, the same no-phone policy will be enforced. Due to the huge demand for tickets, many fans were unable to attend the show in New York City, with many resorting to standing outside the venue with signs asking everyone on the street if they had an extra ticket. However, accounts from people who were able to go come pouring with gratitude that no phones were allowed during the show. The small stage, minimal production, and no screen recording barrier between the singer and the audience seem to have made the experience more meaningful, and everyone was forced to be present and attentive.
During the song "Graceland Too", the urge to signal their presence to Bridgers overtook the audience, and what would have once been everyone taking out their phone flashlights became a return to the basic rock culture of raising lighters. Even Nylon Magazine published an article detailing the events inside the show on Thursday night, and fan reviews online are glowing.
In a time when screen times are over the roof, and one can’t seem to attend a concert without hundreds of phones blocking the view, audiences as well as performers long for the human connection that comes from communal spaces and art. With artists like Bob Dylan and Alicia Keys having experimented with device-free concert spaces, Bridgers's model, which has proven successful in a venue as large as Madison Square Garden, could potentially become the new standard, offering a solution we didn't realize we needed.
