Not even the intensity of the Florida weather can deter fans of Phoebe Bridgers – from 5:30 am they arrived numbering in the thousands, camping out all day in the blistering heat of Ybor City – all no doubt hopeful for one of the coveted rail positions closest to the stage. By the time Bridgers’ set begins 16 hours later, anyone with hands has been deputized to toss packs’ worth of water bottles into the audience to keep the young crowd cool.
During ‘Chinese Satellite’, which confronts Bridgers’ difficulty believing in anything beyond the visible world, she’s joined by Charlie Hickey. Hickey opened the show and, the day prior, released his debut record Nervous At Night through Bridgers’ Saddest Factory record imprint. Adding ‘record label head’ to her already-extensive resume, she’s been adamant about taking her signees on the road, introducing the world to the likes of Hickey, MUNA, and Sloppy Jane.
The crowd gets really excited when Bridgers strums the first few notes of ‘Scott Street’, one of the standout tracks from Stranger in the Alps that so perfectly encapsulates the feeling of loneliness and alienation in the wake of a breakup. This sharp writing helped Bridgers’ career explode following the release of that album, and when Punisher arrived in 2020 it was received with rapt attention and critical acclaim. The album is Bridgers at the top of her songwriting and compositional game, assisted by bandmates Harrison Whitford and Marshall Vore, and throughout the evening in Tampa she shows off many of its tracks, from the dreamlike magical realism of ‘Garden Song’ and ‘Halloween’ to a direct exploration of her relationship with her father in ‘Kyoto’.
Later in the evening Bridgers also plays ‘Sidelines’, her most recent single release. Written for a Hulu series, it’s the first original music she’s released since Punisher.
A Phoebe Bridgers encore can bring many things, and it’s never quite certain what song she’ll play, if it’ll be one of hers or a cover, or if she’ll play solo or with the band once again. This evening in Florida, she opts for ‘Me and My Dog’ by Boygenius, her collaboration/supergroup with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. Much like her Better Oblivion Community Center project with Conor Oberst, the project has only had one release; but the occasional surfacing of one of their songs in Bridgers’ set is both a welcome surprise and a hope for fans that the trio may return to the studio together one day.
