On “Garden Song” from her 2020 album Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers sang: “When I grow up, I’m gonna look up from my phone and see my life.”
When she sang that lyric on Monday in South Philly, she didn’t have to take her eyes away from her mobile device because, of course, she was on stage and didn’t have it with her.
But what was different about “The Lost Tour” — the concert trek that brought Bridgers to the Xfinity Mobile Arena along with her nine-piece band and her opening act, Havertown’s own Alex G — was that none of the other 20,000 or so people in the room had their cellphones with them either.
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’ 26-song headlining set and Alex G’s 19-tune opener.
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’t be immediately shared virtually?
And perhaps more importantly, how are you supposed to know the Eagles score if you can’t constantly check your phone? Though that turned out to be a blessing, considering the Birds abysmal Monday Night Football performance.
Bridgers’ performance, on the contrary — as well as the impressive and imaginative staging of the singer-songwriter’s inaugural arena tour — was exemplary.
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.
It also looked really cool. This summer, in the run up to the release of The 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.
“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 — one of those plate covers that a server lifts to reveal a dinner plate at a fancy restaurant.
The first song “Outside,” also the opening track on Lost Weekend, was played by musicians not yet visible under the dome. In its first verse, Bridgers’ heavily processed voice cracked a macabre joke about the funeral of her father, who died in 2022: “Crying in a suit and tie, but you should see the other guy / One more time for old time’s sake, I’ll watch him get carried away.”
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.
As it hung overhead, the dome then tilted back to reveal outer space imagery — the surface of the moon, or what looked like Jupiter — in its circular core while sky-high back and white visions of Bridgers were projected on curtains on either side of the stage.
The action began with Stranger’s “Motion Sickness,” about an abusive relationship (“I hate you for what you did, and I miss you like a little kid”) and kicked into gear with the new album’s ear worm “Lost Boys,” about men behaving badly, again.
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 band mates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker.
The trio broke through to mainstream popularity in 2023, when it sold out the Mann Center in Fairmount 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’s room at Willie Nelson and Neil Young’s show at the Mann last week.
boygenius reunited at Bridgers’ shows in Brooklyn this month, but her band mates didn’t make the trip down the Jersey Turnpike to Dacus’ former hometown. Not to worry, though: Bridgers had a special guest at the ready in her opening act.
In her own set, she brought out “my friend Alex G.”
The singer whose last name is Giannascoli co-wrote two songs and co-produced 11 on Lost Weekend. It’s no surprise he and Bridgers are simpatico, as his music bears the influence of Elliot Smith, one of Bridgers’ songwriting heroes.
Many of Bridgers’ songs — catchy as they are, and sung in a sweet upper register — can be heavy going, even when she makes not really light-hearted jokes like in “Governor’s Waltz,” about “hiding in the bathroom, like Shelly Duvall” in The Shining.
But her music also rocks out with ecstatic release. As it did on Monday with “Bobby,” a euphoric tune about her partner, comedian Bo Burnham, who co-wrote it.
She then brought out Alex G and his band, including violinist Molly Germer, for a duet on his song called “Bobby,” a country lament from 2017.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a decade,” Bridgers said.
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.
She sang the devastating “Funeral,” and thanked fans for putting phones away, as part of a trend that’s also seen artists like Jill Scott go the Yondr route to create a more present, in the moment experience.
» READ MORE: Nothing stood in between Jilly and Philly during Jill Scott’s four-night stand at the Met
Some fans in other cities had cut the pouches open with knives, Bridgers said, but joked “they have to live with who they are.” Creating a phone free experience, she said, “is actually no more thought out than it’s really nice.” Which it was.
Before “Still Standing,” a song about domestic violence, Bridgers, 32, talked about her complicated relationship with her father, and how satisfying it’s been to talk to fans and friends who’ve had similar experiences.
“I used to think that artists had traumatic lives,” she said. “Now I realize it’s just that artists sing about it. Really, its everyone. Everybody deserves their own documentary.”
Alex G played his entire set from the second stage, which was lit by light saber-like sticks that made it appear that he and his band were performing from inside of a light bulb.
» READ MORE: Philly indie-rock star (Sandy) Alex G: ‘I want to make good music that people can listen to 100 times’
The prolific musician who has moved into film scoring, most recently stretching out as a composer with his work on Jane Schoenbrun’s horror rom-com Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, was in fine form.
His economical set courted Bridgers’ fans early on with melodic nuggets like “Gretel” and the grabby “Runner” before moving into more gnarly territory.
Coming on stage as a recording of “Here Come The Sixers” played, he let his subtly appealing music do the talking, but also charmed with awkward, blurted out stage patter.
“It’s good to be back in the greatest city in the world,” he said, adding “I can’t think of anything else to say. Is everybody excited about LeBron James?”
And after thanking everyone involved in the show, from Bridgers to his driver, he ended with the words that all Philadelphians understand but which did no good on this particular evening: “Go Birds!”