At the end of May, towards finals, General Manager, Dylan Gutierrez and I attended Phoebe Bridgers’ concert in Atlanta at Chastain Park. With her sophomore album, Punisher coming out in 2020 and concerts not being in session, she was finally able to launch her tour in the latter half of 2021.
The venue was a beautiful amphitheater, with large swathes of open space in a cozy, open, park. Upon entering, the place was packed and we were there for several minutes until Bridgers’ act started. The overall atmosphere was fitting for her concert: cozy and bright, folksy and calm.
When the lights dimmed, right off the bat, Bridgers played a riff to arguably her most popular and iconic song, “Motion Sickness”. The visuals off of the big screen on stage flashed and changed through various motion graphics to complement the song.
After finishing that song, she went through various other songs throughout her album “Punisher”, and while there were breaks in between songs, she would interject something playful, whether that was a message or a story, or even a funny joke, this elevated the experience as she is definitely charismatic and has a wonderful stage presence.
When she started playing her song, “Chinese Satellite”, the visuals changed again, but this time to vary the performance, she brought her friend and opener of the show, Indie artist, Charlie Hickey to duet with. Normally this song isn’t a duet, however, the contrast between their harmonies and singing made his voice a great addition to the performance.
Throughout the various songs she played, the aforementioned screen changed to accompany her, and visually, it was stunning. The whole concert was. She included these varied visuals through all her sets on tour in every city, but each time it was unique. When Kyoto came on as the fourth song, the screen flashed to a beautiful pink and purple with a traditional Japanese house as a shooting star shot across it.
Bridgers’ singing voice projected whilst still being soft, and comforting she sounded as great live as she does in the studio recordings.
At the end of the concert, Bridgers was called up for an encore, and of course, being in Atlanta, the one song she was going to play was Georgia. It was a very visceral performance, a single spotlight, everyone’s phone flashlights waving through the air, and no screen projecting anything, just her and an acoustic guitar pulling the audience into the moment. The performance was amazing and emotionally strong. It was the only way to finish a concert like this.
It was definitely a great night to remember due to her great voice, strong visuals, and powerful duets.
