{"id":469963,"date":"2026-10-18T20:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T20:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/469963\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T20:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T20:44:09","slug":"phoebe-bridgers-no-phones-policy-amplified-show-at-dickies-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/469963\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoebe Bridgers’ no-phones policy amplified show at Dickies Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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\u2019ve ever seen on stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An opener most would have paid to see as a headliner<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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 \u201carena rock,\u201d but you wouldn\u2019t have known it at Dickies. <\/p>\n

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THANK YOU!<\/p>\n

You’re all set.<\/p>\n

CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our job, is to make sure you guys are having fun,\u201d Alex G said to the crowd, feeding off their energy. \u201cSo let\u2019s make sure we get paid tonight. Everybody have extra fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the band launched into the opening bars of \u201cMis,\u201d from the 2012 album \u201cRules,\u201d 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. <\/p>\n

The transmission from an intergalactic superstar<\/p>\n

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 \u201cThe Outside\u201d \u2014 from her new record, \u201cLost Weekend\u201d \u2014 played over the empty stage.<\/p>\n

As the song ended, a massive dome on the main stage lifted up, revealing Bridgers and her band beneath. They threw themselves into \u201cMotion Sickness\u201d from Bridgers\u2019 2017 debut album \u201cStrangers in the Alps,\u201d kicking off a show that would be bold, introspective and intimate. <\/p>\n

The dome where Bridgers\u2019 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. <\/p>\n

\"\"Splashed in blue, much of Bridgers\u2019 show had spatial themes and imagery for phone-less fans to admire. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the fuck is up, Fort Worth?\u201d shouted the 32-year-old performer after the band\u2019s first run of songs, before transitioning into \u201cLost Boys,\u201d one of the signature tracks from the new record. <\/p>\n

The evening\u2019s 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 \u201cLost Weekend\u201d and \u201cHaunted\u201d a more confessional quality.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cLost Weekend.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have joined a club that I didn\u2019t intend to join, but I\u2019m in good company,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Then, Bridgers, known for being outspoken about her political beliefs<\/a>, 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.\u00a0She declared that America is run by a \u201clazy Nazi government right now\u201d before proclaiming, \u201cFuck ICE, fuck Netanyahu and fuck he who must not be named: Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was wrong about a lot, but he taught me queer people are people and war is bad,\u201d Bridgers said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

After performing \u201cAs Above,\u201d the star returned to the main stage to finish her set, starting with \u201cBobby.\u201d Before playing \u201cOn Video,\u201d Bridgers shared that she wrote the song for the new \u201cTo Catch A Predator\u201d-inspired movie \u201cPrimetime\u201d<\/a> (of which she has a role in), mostly because she wasn\u2019t able to write a song for \u201cTwilight\u201d when it came out. One Robert Pattinson movie is as good as another, we suppose.<\/p>\n

For the evening\u2019s surprise song, Bridgers played Tom Petty\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019ll All Work Out.\u201d Afterward, she wrapped up the main set with \u201cKyoto\u201d and \u201cI Know The End,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cLost Weekend (Reprise)\u201d and \u201cScott Street.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then she was gone while the band played the crowd out to the tune of \u201cNever Going Back!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

No phone reflections <\/p>\n

Bridgers\u2019 decision to ban phones on the tour <\/a>has drawn extra attention. She\u2019s not the first artist to ban phones in recent years; Jack White<\/a>, 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\u2019s certainly the largest artist with a predominantly young fan base to lock up thousands of smartphones pre-show.<\/p>\n

\"\"Phoebe Bridgers kept her tour phone-free to allow for a more confessional, intimate and truthful show at Dickies Arena. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s phones were tucked away in Yondr pouches, meaning no endless scrolling or carefully curated selfie shoots to distract from the enduring crush of existence.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 \u201cPhoebe Dad Rant 12\u201d afterward. The crowd cheered their approval.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If anyone in Fort Worth doubted that Phoebe Bridgers is a bona fide rockstar, she set the record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2171,116,118,117,4661,2174],"class_list":["post-469963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-concert-reviews","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-pop-music","tag-touring-artists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}