Phoebe Bridgers 6/16/22
Forest Hills Stadium in Queens welcomed back Phoebe Bridgers for the conclusion of her three consecutive show run in New York City this week. The stadium, adorned with rainbow flags in observance of Pride Month for the LGTBQ+ community, fanned a contagious air of joy and victory over entering ticket holders. Much in the spirit of what Bridger’s tour was named - “Reunion”, moment after moment, skeleton clad groups of fans merged and embraced each other as if separated from birth. A part of me felt left out.
The indie pop trio from LA, Muna, opened the show in their final performance before the release of their new self-titled album under Bridger’s label, Saddest Factory. Bridgers herself joined them on stage for their closing song, “Silk Chiffon”. The surprise caused a mad rush of fans to abandon the beer line.
Special guest, Lucy Dacus took the stage afterward taking a moment to thank Phoebe for “making her do this”. She also asked the stadium directly “Who here is gay?” which received the 2nd most thunderous response of the evening, only rivaled later by Phoebe's song “I know The End”.
This was my second time seeing Phoebe perform, the first was while working Coachella but I was a bit distracted trying to get my shots looking okay in the dark and navigating through her stage production while doing my best to not fuck anything up. It was a much more enjoyable experience this time around at Forest Hills.
Phoebe’s accompanying LCD backdrop supplied a beautiful ever-evolving animated pop-up storybook throughout the performance. To me it really added a kind of spooky child-like fantasy element to her show.
The only minor interruption that occurred was ironically during “Smoke-Signals” for a fan in distress needing assistance. Admittedly, I found myself painfully bawling during Phoebe’s performance of “Savior Complex” standing between a 12-year old who could not find her cell phone and a dude eating a hotdog.
Lucy Dacus joined Phoebe on stage for her last two songs before the encore. The kinship between artists all night was a joy to witness.
To close out, here are three of my favorite one-liners overhead from passing fans.
“Mom, can Phoebe babysit?”
“She’s like God, but…like cool!”
“Out of three shows, this was definitely her third.”