If anyone in Fort Worth doubted that Phoebe Bridgers is a bona fide rockstar, she set the record straight at her no-phones tour stop at Dickies Arena on Saturday.

Backed by a big band of nine other musicians (including Jay Som), Bridgers brought the audience to their feet and kept them there for over 90 minutes during a show that was a study in duality. The Claifornia singer-songwriter bounced between two stages, one at the front of the arena and a smaller, circular stage in the middle of the floor. She oscillated between emotional acoustic tracks and bombastic rock tunes, presenting herself as both a cosmic presence and the most down-to-earth person you’ve ever seen on stage. 

An opener most would have paid to see as a headliner

Alex G, an indie artist with a massive cult following, used his DIY roots to make the massive 14,000-seat venue feel like a house show.

He and his band performed on the smaller stage in the middle of the floor, running through crowd-friendly tracks with minimal chatter in between for an hour. Their music is too reflective to be pejoratively termed “arena rock,” but you wouldn’t have known it at Dickies.

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“That’s our job, is to make sure you guys are having fun,” Alex G said to the crowd, feeding off their energy. “So let’s make sure we get paid tonight. Everybody have extra fun.”

When the band launched into the opening bars of “Mis,” from the 2012 album “Rules,” the crowd obliged, erupting into cheers. The crowd hit such a fever pitch by the time the set was winding down, it was easy to forget the main event was still coming.

The transmission from an intergalactic superstar

Right on time, the lights dropped and the crowd roared. In pitch darkness, something halfway between a disco ball and an atomic bomb rose over the smaller stage, firing teal beams of light as “The Outside” — from her new record, “Lost Weekend” — played over the empty stage.

As the song ended, a massive dome on the main stage lifted up, revealing Bridgers and her band beneath. They threw themselves into “Motion Sickness” from Bridgers’ 2017 debut album “Strangers in the Alps,” kicking off a show that would be bold, introspective and intimate.

The dome where Bridgers’ band was set for the show was backgrounded by a massive screen that circulated through spacey imagery like planets, stars and black holes. As they played under the setup outfitted with lights around its edges, the changing colors provided ambient lighting or fire spotlights into the crowd.

Splashed in blue, much of Bridgers’ show had spatial themes and imagery for phone-less fans to admire.

“What the fuck is up, Fort Worth?” shouted the 32-year-old performer after the band’s first run of songs, before transitioning into “Lost Boys,” one of the signature tracks from the new record.

The evening’s emotional climax came after Bridgers moved to the smaller stage in the center of the arena. If the opening numbers saw her take her place among the stars as the centrer of a rock galaxy, what followed was more warm. The songs were softer and more acoustic, lending her renditions of “Lost Weekend” and “Haunted” a more confessional quality.

At one point, Bridgers took a moment between songs to talk about the experience of losing her father, who died in 2022. She explained how his death influenced the development of “Lost Weekend.” 

“I have joined a club that I didn’t intend to join, but I’m in good company,” she said.

Then, Bridgers, known for being outspoken about her political beliefs, shifted gears, saying there are many ways to lose parents. Death is one, but some people have to cut off contact with their parents because of political beliefs. She declared that America is run by a “lazy Nazi government right now” before proclaiming, “Fuck ICE, fuck Netanyahu and fuck he who must not be named: Trump.”

“My dad was wrong about a lot, but he taught me queer people are people and war is bad,” Bridgers said on Saturday.

After performing “As Above,” the star returned to the main stage to finish her set, starting with “Bobby.” Before playing “On Video,” Bridgers shared that she wrote the song for the new “To Catch A Predator”-inspired movie “Primetime” (of which she has a role in), mostly because she wasn’t able to write a song for “Twilight” when it came out. One Robert Pattinson movie is as good as another, we suppose.

For the evening’s surprise song, Bridgers played Tom Petty’s “It’ll All Work Out.” Afterward, she wrapped up the main set with “Kyoto” and “I Know The End,” the latter of which culminated in the entire crowd bathed in red light and screaming at the top of their lungs along with Bridgers. It was chaotic catharsis, an opportunity to be vulnerable and present.

For her encore, Bridgers took the smaller stage once more, returning with an ethereal glow, wearing a white dress, with tears painted on her cheeks while performing “Lost Weekend (Reprise)” and “Scott Street.” 

Then she was gone while the band played the crowd out to the tune of “Never Going Back!” 

No phone reflections

Bridgers’ decision to ban phones on the tour has drawn extra attention. She’s not the first artist to ban phones in recent years; Jack White, Bob Dylan and others have been enforcing strict no-phones policies at some of their concerts for a while. But Bridgers is one of the largest artists to have actively enforced phone bans at large arenas, and she’s certainly the largest artist with a predominantly young fan base to lock up thousands of smartphones pre-show.

Phoebe Bridgers kept her tour phone-free to allow for a more confessional, intimate and truthful show at Dickies Arena.

At times, the no phone policy left idle fans twiddling their thumbs. During the half hour between Alex G wrapping up and Bridgers taking the stage, the crowd seemed almost at a loss. Everyone’s phones were tucked away in Yondr pouches, meaning no endless scrolling or carefully curated selfie shoots to distract from the enduring crush of existence.

But in softer moments of the show, the no-phone policy proved its worth, giving it the feel-good nostalgia we crave. During slower songs, members of the crowd made up for not having access to their phones by going retro and holding up lighters and swaying. 

By her own admission, Bridgers revealed that the policy granted her new access to intimacy and authenticity with her crowd. She explained that they made the tour phone-free so she could freely discuss her grief without someone posting a YouTube video titled “Phoebe Dad Rant 12” afterward. The crowd cheered their approval.

At the end of it all, we were left with no photos, no videos, just memories and a communal buzz. For a little while, Fort Worth felt like the center of the universe and the coolest place to be on a Saturday night. All thanks to Bridgers.