On Oct. 19th, 2026 I attended the best concert of my life. As an avid concert goer, with over 20 concerts under my belt I say this with careful consideration and experience.
That concert was Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Tour at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.
Since middle school, Phoebe Bridgers has provided the soundtrack to my life. From late nights spent playing “Motion Sickness,” dreary winter days where her hauntingly beautiful cover of “Day After Tomorrow“ was left on repeat, to decorating my graduation cap with the lyrics of one of my favorite’s– “Graceland Too,” Phoebe Bridgers was there through it all.
The walls of my bedroom were lined in Pinterest posters of her albums. I was gifted tote bags and merch of hers frequently on holidays–If you knew me, you knew my love for her music was eternal.
So when she announced she’d be going on tour, I didn’t even have to look over the tour locations to know I’d be there, one way or another.
There was a catch to her tour though, one I was yet to experience at a concert before–no phones were allowed. Instead, Phoebe opted to have her audience lock up their phones in a Yondr pouch from the moment you entered the stadium till you left. This of course was met with many mixed opinions online, but I was intrigued by this new type of concert experience.
Leading up to the tour I listened to Phoebe Bridgers obsessively. Blasting my favorites off her new album–“Haunted,” “I Can’t Wait,” and the heartbreakingly beautiful “The Governor’s Waltz” through every walk to class. Whenever I was alone in my dorm, her voice was surely found on the speaker. I doomscrolled Pinterest in search of outfit inspiration, and made sure every lyric of hers was practically tattooed along my brain.
I was more than ready.
Oct. 19 came, and my best friend and I were buzzing with excitement. There was such a mystery around her concert; what it would look like, how she would sound, what she would do, and we couldn’t wait to know the answers. When packing our purses, I slipped a small, light blue notebook into mine- and a pen for each of us, along with a bright red lighter.
Sure enough, the moment after our tickets were signed we were sent directly to a Yondr station, and locked up our phones. Funnily enough, my friend and I both went to a high school where we used the same device to lock up our phone throughout the school day. It started to feel a lot like those days as we pushed the magnet closed and said “goodbye,” to our devices.
The time in between Phoebe’s opener, Alex G,and when Phoebe’s set started, we found fun ways to pass the time as we anxiously awaited her arrival. I had seen dozens of TikToks where people tried sketching out what the set looked like, a special way to keep your memory of the concert intact, and we gave it a try!
While our drawings may resemble closer to a little kid’s sketching notebook, I am grateful for this unique way of remembering the concert, and truly nothing could capture the way the show felt–not even through a screen.
We continued to play paper games like tic-tac-toe, and hangman, all while completely oblivious to how much or little time had been passing. While I partly did wish there were at least clocks around so we could have an idea of when she might be coming on–there was nothing more exciting than feeling completely surprised when her first song began to play. She began her show with the hauntingly beautiful “The Outside,” playing throughout every speaker in the room. It felt like the entire audience was at the edge of their seats waiting for her to show up, as we all sat there completely unaware of where she would pop out. Then, when those first beats of “Motion Sickness,” blasted and the large dome on the main stage rose up to reveal Phoebe and her band, I was so excited I could have died.
The show that followed was special and unique beyond compare. Before leaving I had written out her assumed set list to see how closely she followed it each show.
One of the highlights was when she brought out her brother Jackson Bridgers, and had the crowd sing him “Happy Birthday.” Following it with her “surprise song” of the night–“Would You Rather.” A beautiful song about the complex relationship her and her brother have with one another, and their life growing up. Seeing the two of them sing such a personal song with no device to capture it made it feel that much more personal and authentic.
I sobbed like a baby throughout three quarters of the concert, (at least!) my mascara flowing down my face almost comically. Specifically, Hearing “Graceland Too” live was a bucket-list item I never knew just how much I needed to complete. That song has been one of my favorites not just of Phoebe’s, but generally since seventh grade. I listened to it during some of the hardest and lowest points of my life, and now in some of the happiest and healthiest. Each lyric is plastered across my heart, so much so I used it for my high school graduation cap, quoting “Said she knows she lived through it to get to this moment,” and at that moment, I truly felt like I had.
I will say I was skeptical of the no-phones rule, but in the end couldn’t have been more grateful for it. I can confidently say that even without videos to look back on, I remember every moment of that concert. I would honestly love to see more artists continue with this rule, as every single person in that crowd was so focused on just experiencing the beauty of her music, not getting the best videos. If you ever get the chance to see Phoebe Bridgers, whether your barricade or the very top of the nosebleeds, I say with full certainty- you should. It was a night that will stay with me forever, and has given me such amazing and vivid memories every time I play her music.