{"id":687499,"date":"2026-06-06T07:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/687499\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T07:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:03:12","slug":"going-analog-at-phoebe-bridgers-phones-free-msg-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/687499\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Analog at Phoebe Bridgers\u2019 Phones-Free MSG Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis song is about the past,\u201d said Phoebe Bridgers<\/a> before diving into one of the eight unreleased tracks she played for a rapt sold-out crowd at her pop-up Madison Square Garden show<\/a> on Thursday night. \u201cBut that\u2019s every song.\u201d Since her spectral breakout single \u201cSmoke Signals\u201d in 2017, the Los Angeles songwriter, Boygenius member, and soon-to-be actress<\/a> has become a preeminent chronicler of the ghosts we accumulate over time: past selves<\/a>, old haunts<\/a>, lost loves. In her songs, collective and personal history are both alive and instructive\u2014a pathway to understanding who you are, and who it is you\u2019d like to become.<\/p>\n

Fittingly, Bridgers\u2019 MSG show, which followed a series of month-long surprise performances<\/a> across the country, pulled off something uncannily akin to time travel. Recording devices were banned and all phones were locked away in Yondr pouches, while pens and paper were strictly verboten for press. (Bridgers will continue the no-phones policy on her just-announced Lost Tour<\/a> this fall.) After handing over our devices, we received printed tickets with our seat number scribbled in silver ink, lest someone lose their way returning from the merch stand or custom photo booth.<\/p>\n

Before Bridgers took the stage, the cyclical nature of history was already evident. Less than 24 hours earlier, New York Knicks fans had swarmed the Garden for a watch party to witness their team beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game One of the NBA Finals\u2014the same team they faced the last time they made it this far, in 1999. Unsurprisingly, this synchronicity seemed to fall on a solid percentage of deaf ears. \u201cUgh, hurry up!\u201d I heard one flock of teenagers in flowy boho skirts and archival Bridgers\u2019 tees complain as they waited for the digital Knicks marquee outside the arena to shift back to a poster for the show. That said, I spoke with one fan who had donned a Knicks jersey for the occasion, noting that securing Phoebe tickets the night before such a consequential game felt \u201clike destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Photo by Alex Suskind<\/p>\n

Nods to yesteryear also came in the form of the small, round stage Bridgers used, which had all the trappings of a 1970s suburban dad\u2019s basement, from the kitschy chevron throw tossed over a couch to slime-green lava lamps and blacklight posters. Accompanying her were Nick White on keys and Christian Lee Hutson on guitar, foot drum, and harmonica, imbuing every song with a campfire warmth conducive to the setting, as if tens of thousands of us just stumbled across an impromptu jam session.<\/p>\n

Perhaps due to the anticipation of new material, a hush blanketed the crowd when Bridgers, sporting a Black Sabbath tee and her usual curtain of ice-blonde hair, opened with \u201cMotion Sickness.\u201d But a sense of surprise reverberated when fans recognized the opening strains of \u201cWaiting Room,\u201d a 2014 ballad about teenage heartache that unfurls into steely determination, and one of the first solo songs she ever released.<\/p>\n

After the requisite run of fan favorites \u201cKyoto\u201d and \u201cMoon Song,\u201d it was time for the new shit. Although the dissemination of lyrics was not permitted, the eight songs she performed\u2014including one with a nod to a major New York landmark\u2014reaffirmed her status as one of the finest singer-songwriters working today. Channeling Soundgarden and the Chicks (yes, she has a country song coming) as deftly as Neil Young and Paul Simon, Bridgers introduced bigger belts, more elastic vocal runs, and thornier topics into her oeuvre of quiet devastation. But she continues to render small moments and passing thoughts as exquisitely as big philosophies about fame, death, and the weaponized neglect of the American government. Every ticket, from the floor to the nosebleeds, was also priced between $1 and $20, with proceeds supporting the Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund. (If that benefit wasn\u2019t clear enough, Bridgers didn\u2019t mince words before performing one of her more overtly political new songs: \u201cI fucking hate ICE agents.\u201d)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis song is about the past,\u201d said Phoebe Bridgers before diving into one of the eight unreleased tracks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,76337],"class_list":["post-687499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-live-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}