Venue:
Academy, Birmingham
Date: 26/06/2022
If this gig is anything to go by, Phoebe Bridgers is coming up fast on the rails as a spokesperson for a generation. Second album Punisher was everywhere during lockdown, and her hushed acoustic tales of twenty-something depression, therapy and relationship breakdown resonated mightily.
Three thousand souls gathered at the Academy, hugely excited to be part of the much-postponed Punisher victory lap tour. Fronting a full band kitted out in her trademark skeleton tops, we got a focused 90 minute set that saw almost all of Punisher played together with the highlight half of debut Stranger In The Alps.
The Punisher songs, on the whole, were beefier and filled the venue out impressively. Some of the delicacy and poise of the absolute best of …Alps however I felt got lost in the transition from headphones to stage. Opener Motion Sickness fared best, prompting a huge singalong from the get-go, while my personal favourite Scott Street (has anyone recorded a better single song in the past five years?) fell a bit awkwardly between acoustic and electric, solo and band. If you record a song that good, expectations will be high. Predictably but effectively the main set ended with Punisher closer The End, cue for a medium-scale band wig-out. Only one encore, an affecting solo Waiting Room.
In between songs we got a generous amount of spokesperson chat: a long Roe v Wade statement, together with thoughts on dads who drink and drive, relationship breakdown and tons of other stuff. She’s a tremendously passionate and sincere personality and spending 90 minutes in her company is time well-spent.
If you’re detecting a slight hesitation, it’s simply that she’s an artist with two albums who hasn’t toured that much, and occasionally it shows. Another album of the quality of her first two and her shows will be quite something.
The audience:
Seventy percent female, and fifty percent under eighteen. First time in a long, long while that actual screaming greeted the start of the gig. Singing along, phones in the air, phone lights turned on, a fully engaged audience hanging on Bridger’s every word.. While it was hot, 15 outside, the gig had to be halted for five minutes to allow water to be handed out and the press at the front to cool down.
It made me think..
Not every artist is amazingly better live than on record, and there’s nothing wrong in that.
Excellent review. Moseley You made me want to go out and give Phebe a good listen.
Your description of the audience suggests you were not there alone. Although I may be completely wrong on that!
Great review. I agree that she’s locked in the live performance of Punisher more than the first album, but I also think it’s a consequence of the material just being a little stronger.
Think she has some really, really impressive records and live shows ahead of her.
Don’t know anything about her at all but coincidentally I heard a record on 6music on sunday night by Lord Huron and she duetted on it.
Will investigate although I suspect if 70 percent of the audience were female and majority of those under 18 my guess is I am not the target audience.
Target audience and whether you enjoy listening to her are two different things. I enjoy Taylor Swift despite not being the former, and dislike many many acts deemed targeted at fifty-somethings. One of the joys of getting older is that you cease to worry about whether you should or shouldn’t be listening to someone.
I agree with you @moseleymoles , for example I really like Wet Leg but I suspect majority of 65 year old males probably don’t.
We had a woman at work who was a year younger than me who told me when I was 40 that I was too old to go and see Springsteen – guess what? I am 66 next year and going to see him in Rome – age is very much a number. Re Taylor Swift – I like her but my 23 year old daughter can’t stand her. Role reversal?
Pretty much the same round ours re Swifty. Involving the National was a blatant play for the crucial dad vote tho.
And Ryan Adams covering her gave her some street cred with us old gits – until he got into trouble himself.