“It’s weird not having a phone, isn’t it?” Phoebe Bridgers told the audience of more than 18,000 who voluntarily turned off their devices for Thursday night’s special acoustic concert at Madison Square Garden. “I like it. I appreciate you allowing this to be an Internet-free zone.”
She added, smiling, “And if any of you stuck an Apple Watch up your ass to record this, please don’t post it on the Internet — I’m counting on you.”
The rules for this concert — the first phone-free arena show we’ve ever attended, and possibly the largest ever — were posted in a strongly worded statement on Madison Square Garden’s website when it was a $1-per-ticket benefit. Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund (which provides bail funds for ICE detainees), sponsored by Tidal Streaming ServiceThe announcement was made on Monday.
It read, “Device Free Show.” “Per artist request, no recording devices will be allowed at this event, including but not limited to the items listed below: no cellphones, no cameras, no tablets, no laptops, no smart watches, no Bluetooth enabled headphones. Upon arrival, small devices will be secured in Yondr pouches that will be unlocked at the end of the event. Guests will retain possession of their Yondr pouches throughout the night, and if necessary, in the lobby. You can access your device at designated Yondr unlocking stations. We appreciate your support in creating a device-free viewing experience.
Journalists covering the show were told that pens, pencils and paper were also not allowed, apparently because incorrect lyrics and song titles were being posted on the Internet.
Similar rules were in place for the dozens of shows Bridgers had played before, but they were all in club-sized venues in third-tier markets like Fargo, North Dakota and Huntington, West Virginia — and suddenly they were trying to do it at Madison Square Garden.
While all this might seem pricey and/or obnoxious – not to mention logistically challenging – he and the venue pulled it off with remarkable ease. The queues to pick up the phone were long, but moved efficiently, and extremely polite staff wrote down your section, row and seat numbers on custom tickets before snatching your phone, and simply asking if you were carrying any other prohibited items (although security was scanning the audience with handheld telescope devices throughout the show).
And as the show began, the purpose seemed almost less about preventing premature promotion for the many unreleased songs Bridgers performed, but rather about highlighting a long-gone era that most audiences had never experienced: a time when an artist could test new material without it being available to millions of people within seconds, and audience members could watch a concert without being obscured or completely blocked by multiple people taking video, which they probably never would have. Will not see.
More importantly, that intimacy extended to the show itself. Bridgers performed on a small circular stage that looked like a 1970s entertainment room. He and guitarist Christian Lee Hutson sat on a couch covered with a cheesy patterned knitted blanket, with lamps on either side, along with a boxy old TV, black-light posters, a lava lamp, and candles. Live video of the performance was broadcast (and sometimes televised) on a scoreboard screen hung in the middle of the arena’s roof, but the picture was intentionally grainy, like older television broadcasts. Keyboardist Nick White was the only other musician; The only rhythm was an occasional bass drum which Hutson operated with his foot. The atmosphere of the set was very “Stranger Things”, a perception heightened when, during the more intense moments of the show, the lamps flickered as if Vecna ​​was approaching.
In an unplanned throwback to that bygone era, at one point during a particularly emotional song, about a hundred spectators throughout the arena held cigarette lighters instead of phones.
Bridgers, accompanied by a back-to-back acoustic guitar and a Mellotron keyboard propped up in front of a couch, opened with fan favorites “Motion Sickness,” “Waiting Room,” Kyoto” and “Moon Song.” But most of the audience knew there was a big batch of long-awaited new songs coming – Bridgers’ first new material since the Boygenius album in 2023.
He introduced seven new tracks in a row, which journalists were politely asked not to reveal much about. Many of them are excerpts from his previous work, including his trademark melodies, whip-smart wordplay and emotional vulnerability; At least one seemed to be about a painful breakup. Yet some explore new territory: he introduced one as “country song”, which found him able to adopt the style and rhythms of the genre with impressive ease; The second featured a dangerous and intense finale, with her voice at the top of its range.
She often spoke to the audience, asking if she had “flawed parents” and describing how her late father (with whom she had a troubled relationship) managed to move beyond her conservative upbringing. He thanked Tidal for sponsoring the show and “paying artists more than any other platform”. She announced that she will be touring this fall – with dates coming up on Friday morning. And although she twice mentioned the fact that she was performing at the home of the city’s beloved New York Knicks, not a single audience member yelled “Come on Knicks!” By the end of the show.
But most poignantly he thanked the crowd Supporting a cause that the show benefits: “I hate ICE agents.”
And in surprise, she added “a song we’ve never played before” at the end of the set – “so if I suck it, don’t tell anybody.” We won’t reveal the lyrics, but there were references that made the New York audience happy.
Bridgers finished by thanking the musicians, the sound and lights people and her guitar tech – all by name – and encouraged the audience to sing along and get closer to yell, “I Know the End.” At the song’s frantic conclusion, she got up from the couch and walked to the front of the stage, banging her head for the only big rock moment of the evening – a great way to close an otherwise low-key show that asked a lot of her audience.
And despite all the snarky comments about what really matters when experiencing art in the Instagram age, it was a welcome change to be able to enjoy the show without trying to impress the Internet. Bridgers’ MSG set was a new peak in a year in which artists like Justin Bieber and Olivia Rodrigo have played fan-centric shows where not only phones but even reporters are officially not allowed, and now that Bridgers has slayed it at Madison Square Garden, it’s likely to be adopted by many more.
In fact, our only regret after this ambitious concert is that we didn’t invent the cell-phone pouch years ago…
