Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
On \u201cGarden Song\u201d from her 2020 album Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers sang: \u201cWhen I grow up, I\u2019m gonna look up from my phone and see my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she sang that lyric on Monday in South Philly, she didn\u2019t have to take her eyes away from her mobile device because, of course, she was on stage and didn\u2019t have it with her. <\/p>\n
But what was different about The Lost Tour \u2014 the concert trek that brought Bridgers to the Xfinity Mobile Arena along with her nine-piece band and her opening act, Havertown<\/a>\u2019s own Alex G \u2014 was that none of the other 20,000 or so people in the room had their cell phones with them either. <\/p>\n Or rather, most had them in their possession, but the phones were locked away in Yondr pouches attached to lanyards around their necks, and thus inaccessible for the combined three-hour duration of Bridgers\u2019 26-song headlining set and Alex G\u2019s 19-tune opener. <\/p>\n So: No photos, no videos, and no Instagram until after the show was over. What a concept: Does an actual shared experience even happen if it can\u2019t be immediately shared virtually?<\/p>\n And perhaps more importantly, how are you supposed to know the Eagles score if you can\u2019t constantly check your phone? Though that turned out to be a blessing, considering the Birds\u2019 abysmal Monday Night Football performance. <\/a><\/p>\n Bridgers\u2019 performance, on the contrary \u2014 as well as the impressive and imaginative staging of the singer-songwriter\u2019s inaugural arena tour \u2014 was exemplary.<\/p>\n The show drew from her grief-stricken, joyous, emotionally complex, darkly funny, and musically varied new album, Lost Weekend, as well as Punisher and her 2017 debut, Stranger in the Alps. <\/p>\n It also looked really cool. This summer, in the run-up to the release of Lost Weekend, Bridgers stoked the ardor of her fan base first with a series of no phones pop-up shows around the country, and then Lost Weekend listening parties staged in planetariums.<\/p>\n The Lost Tour recreates that sparkly star-filled aesthetic in an arena setting. Bridgers began with the main stage covered by a dome that looked like a giant cloche \u2014 one of those plate covers that a server lifts to reveal a dinner plate at a fancy restaurant. <\/p>\n The first song \u201cOutside,\u201d also the opening track on Lost Weekend, was played by musicians not yet visible under the dome. In its first verse, Bridgers\u2019 heavily processed voice cracked a macabre joke about the funeral of her father, who died in 2022: \u201cCrying in a suit and tie, but you should see the other guy \/ One more time for old time\u2019s sake, I\u2019ll watch him get carried away.\u201d <\/p>\n Then the dome slowly lifted to reveal the dressed-in-black band. The ensemble, which excelled at folk-pop but also moved into more electronic and noisy textures, included a four-person string section, plus multi-instrumentalist Melina Duterte, who performs under the stage name Jay Som. <\/p>\n As it hung overhead, the dome then tilted back to reveal outer space imagery \u2014 the surface of the moon, or what looked like Jupiter \u2014 in its circular core while sky-high back and white visions of Bridgers were projected on curtains on either side of the stage. <\/p>\n The action began with Bridgers\u2019 \u201cMotion Sickness,\u201d about an abusive relationship (\u201cI hate you for what you did, and I miss you like a little kid\u201d) and kicked into gear with the new album\u2019s earworm \u201cLost Boys,\u201d about men behaving badly, again.<\/p>\n Bridgers rose to popularity as an unstinting and artful chronicler of her interior life not only with her solo work, but also with Better Oblivion Community Center with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and especially boygenius, with bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker<\/a>.<\/p>\n The trio broke through to mainstream popularity in 2023, when it sold out the Mann Center in Fairmount<\/a> Park. That fan base of teenage and older women singing along to every word was in force on Monday, when the merch line was even longer than the queue for the men\u2019s room at Willie Nelson and Neil Young\u2019s show at the Mann last week. <\/a><\/p>\n Boygenius reunited at Bridgers\u2019 shows in Brooklyn this month, but her bandmates didn\u2019t make the trip down the Jersey Turnpike to Dacus\u2019 former hometown. Not to worry, though: Bridgers had a special guest at the ready in her opening act. <\/p>\n In her own set, she brought out \u201cmy friend Alex G.\u201d <\/p>\n The singer whose last name is Giannascoli cowrote two songs and co-produced 11 on Lost Weekend. It\u2019s no surprise he and Bridgers are simpatico, as his music bears the influence of Elliott Smith, one of Bridgers\u2019 songwriting heroes. <\/p>\n Many of Bridgers\u2019 songs \u2014 catchy as they are, and sung in a sweet upper register \u2014 can be heavy going, even when she makes not really light-hearted jokes like in \u201cGovernor\u2019s Waltz,\u201d about \u201chiding in the bathroom, like Shelley Duvall\u201d in The Shining.<\/p>\n But her music also rocks out with ecstatic release. As it did on Monday with \u201cBobby,\u201d a euphoric tune about her partner, comedian Bo Burnham, who cowrote it.<\/p>\n She then brought out Alex G and his band, including violinist Molly Germer, for a duet on his song called \u201cBobby,\u201d a country lament from 2017. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to do that for a decade,\u201d Bridgers said.<\/p>\n Much of the most memorable action happened on the second, satellite stage. Bridgers played a six-song set there, at some points solo and others accompanied by her string players.<\/p>\n She sang the devastating \u201cFuneral,\u201d and thanked fans for putting phones away, as part of a trend that\u2019s also seen artists like Jill Scott go the Yondr route to create a more present, in the moment experience.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Nothing stood in between Jilly and Philly during Jill Scott\u2019s four-night stand at the Met <\/a><\/p>\n Some fans in other cities had cut the pouches open with knives, Bridgers said, but joked \u201cthey have to live with who they are.\u201d Creating a phone-free experience, she said, \u201cis actually no more thought out than it\u2019s really nice.\u201d Which it was. <\/p>\n Before \u201cStill Standing,\u201d a song about domestic violence, Bridgers, 32, talked about her complicated relationship with her father, and how satisfying it\u2019s been to talk to fans and friends who\u2019ve had similar experiences. <\/p>\n \u201cI used to think that artists had traumatic lives,\u201d she said. \u201cNow I realize it\u2019s just that artists sing about it. Really, it\u2019s everyone. Everybody deserves their own documentary.\u201d <\/p>\n Alex G played his entire set from the second stage, which was lit by light saberlike sticks that made it appear that he and his band were performing from inside of a light bulb.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Philly indie-rock star (Sandy) Alex G: \u2018I want to make good music that people can listen to 100 times\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n The prolific musician who has moved into film scoring, most recently stretching out as a composer with his work on Jane Schoenbrun\u2019s horror rom-com<\/a> Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, was in fine form. <\/p>\n His economical set courted Bridgers\u2019 fans early on with melodic nuggets like \u201cGretel\u201d and the grabby \u201cRunner\u201d before moving into more gnarly territory. <\/p>\n Coming on stage as a recording of \u201cHere Come the Sixers\u201d played, he let his subtly appealing music do the talking, but also charmed with awkward, blurted out stage patter.<\/p>\n