Phoebe Bridgers's 'Phoebeween' at Intuit Dome: Sad Songs, Lifted Weight

Phoebe Bridgers played Los Angeles's Intuit Dome this week in a Peter Pan-themed Halloween production that included surprise appearances from Billie Eilish and MUNA — with every phone locked in a Yondr pouch (a magnetically sealed case that renders phones unusable until you exit).

The L.A.-born singer-songwriter's music blends acoustic guitar with electronic production. Her lyrics offer blunt recounts of internal emotions: love, loss, codependency, trauma. She has featured on tracks with Taylor Swift, SZA and Kid Cudi, and is a member of boygenius (with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus) and Better Oblivion Community Center (with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes).

Fans arrived dressed for the occasion. Signs outside the venue read "Phoebeween." Our reviewer, attending with her boyfriend across three shows including one from the pit, put it plainly: as a short girl, she "loved how nice it felt seeing a show through my eyes and not through people holding up phones."

How did the show open?

The lights stayed dim. A blue haze shone over the audience, in front of a giant white dome with a film-grain projection on its curtain. Then a ball-shaped light — it resembled a dark gray moon — descended from the ceiling as Bridgers's voice sang "The Outside," the opening track to Lost Weekend.

The dome rose like a UFO, lights beaming around its edges, to reveal Bridgers and her band dressed as Peter Pan characters. They launched into "Motion Sickness," then more Lost Weekend material: "Kill Me," "The Governor's Waltz" and, fitting the costumes, "Lost Boys."

A projection of the mountain range from the cover of her sophomore record Punisher followed, plus "DVD Menu," "Garden Song" and "Moon Song," with a moon projected onto the bottom of the dome.

What was the emotional core?

At a B-stage near the back of the stadium, Bridgers played "Funeral," "As Above" and "Still Standing," dedicating the last to her father in what our reviewer calls an emotionally complicated speech.

"My dad was abusive," Bridgers shared. "And all my mom did was help me."

Her voice cracked in the first few notes. Under a blue spotlight, smoke covered her almost completely as she sang: "I found her bleeding over the sink, but when you said sorry, you were looking at me."

Who joined her onstage?

Back on the main stage, Bridgers played "Bobby," her upbeat ode to her boyfriend, then delivered two surprises:

• "Silk Chiffon" with MUNA, dressed as pirates
• "Savior Complex" with Billie Eilish, in costume as Michael Darling

The crowd volume was deafening for both. Another highlight: her brother Jackson Bridgers joined for "I Can’t Wait." "All my life, side by side. Hyde, Jekyll, Hyde, finally together," they sang, and Jackson proudly announced that his ship-shaped mask was his own work.

She closed with "Kyoto" and "I Know the End," the audience yelling the outro, then encored on the B-stage with "Lost Weekend (Reprise)" and "Scott Street."

Why did "Scott Street" land hardest?

Our reviewer first heard the song in fall 2023, queuing it at a friend's place while people lay on the floor looking at the ceiling. A girl asked, excitedly, who had played it; they became close friends, and she later found last-minute tickets to Bridgers's London shows. During "ICU," that friend checked on her after the "I hate your mom" lyric — thinking about her life more than she was.

The friendship has since broken. After her grandmother's death, the friend said the good things in the reviewer's life made her own feel so bad she couldn't talk to her anymore. So when "Anyway, don't be a stranger" repeated over the outro at Intuit Dome, tears fell. On the other side of the world, she was thinking about her own life this time.

Bridgers once explained the appeal of sad music in an interview: "Some people who misunderstand sad music are like … 'why would you want to kind of soak in that feeling?' And, honestly, it's kind of like trauma representation … when I read a book that's super dark or something, there's like a weight lifted."

Our reviewer felt it. That is what a well-built arena show can still do, even with the phones locked away.