In an Instagram post announcing the tour for her third studio album, “Lost Weekend,” Phoebe Bridgers wrote, “I’m going on tour no phones,” and that was that. Once digital tickets were scanned, devices were locked in Yondr pouches and fans entered Bridgers’ world, fully device-free.
No-device—more commonly no-phone—shows are not a new concept. Growing from a need to bring intimacy back to live music, these unplugged gigs gained traction in the past ten years. Now, Bridgers removes recording devices in an effort to keep fans in the moment and—as she claimed in a speech at her Columbus show—to avoid the recording of any potential emotional moments. “Lost Weekend” is a vulnerable album, written about the death of Bridgers’ father, grief and loss in personal relationships. It is raw. Having thousands of phones in her face is not an enviable position. Without the presence of phones, pressure is removed from both Bridgers and the audience. Fans are not asked to memorialize or document, only to feel.
Overall, the atmosphere of the show was beautifully tranquil. Walking into the arena was surreal. It was shockingly dark, aside from the small stage which was illuminated by pulsating rainbow lights, with the opener, Alex G. Arena attendants had lanterns and the stands were navigable, but the arena remained overwhelmingly dark. Before Bridgers came out, the small stage’s orb of light projected blue beams across the crowd, while the opening track from her album “The Outside” played. The song includes the line, “Ohio carried me away” which hordes of fans screamed into the darkness. As her set finally began, a white dome on the main stage came up to reveal Bridgers and her extensive band playing “Motion Sickness,” one of her biggest hits.
Bridgers is known for deeply emotional and relatable pieces, and “The Lost Tour” certainly displayed that. However, the real star of the show remained the lighting design, shining without the sea of phone lights to dull their glow. The small stage’s orb threw rainbows of light across the dark crowd. The dome on the main stage became a moon for “Moon Song,” projected pastel lights over the crowd for “The Governor’s Waltz” and illuminated the crowd’s scream at “I Know the End” with red lights. It was gorgeous.
Being unplugged and offline for the duration of the concert, you are immersed in sound. Time slips away and, while that can be stressful, you have no choice but to experience the concert on its terms. Nothing exists beyond the music and the fans. In the quiet dark, there was camaraderie. Fans coordinated bringing glow stick bracelets to light up the seats. During slower, more emotional songs, fans held lighters in place of phone flashlights, bringing back the original tradition. While the sea of lights was certainly dimmer, the warm glow was like nothing else. It felt intentional and real, not the performance of what is expected at concerts.
Most no-phone tours use Yondr pouches. While they are simple for artists to implement, they do have issues. The main issue is that Yondr pouches do not unlock automatically at the end of the show. Instead, they must be manually unlocked by an attendant with a magnet. For small venues with enough attendants this is not an issue, but for an arena that can seat 20,000 people, bottlenecks are inevitable. Lines from the upper sections stretched through at least three flights of steps and moved at a snail’s pace. There is no real way around this, but it is something to be mindful of when going to these shows. You are not going to make a swift exit if you have a Yondr pouch to unlock.
In the end, the show was worth whatever strife leaving the arena brought. Being surrounded by fans who were all singularly focused on what was right in front of them, without the expectation of performing for social media or records, was an experience like no other. When unplugged and untethered at “The Lost Tour,” it is easy to find love for the star of the show: music.