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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/28\/arts\/music\/phoebe-bridgers-phone-ban-lost-weekend-tour.html?ae=oa&emc=edit_nn_20260929&nl=the-morning&segment_id=227235",
    "parsed_content": "Critic\u2019s NotebookWhat We Gain, and Lose, at a Phone-Free ConcertPhoebe Bridgers banned phones from her tour, forcing \u2014 or allowing \u2014 fans to be fully present in the moment.Credit...Illustration by Daniel BarretoSkip to contentSkip to site indexSearch & Section NavigationSection NavigationAccountAccountGoHome U.S.SECTIONSU.S.PoliticsNew YorkCaliforniaEducationHealthObituariesScienceClimateWeatherSportsBusinessTechThe UpshotThe MagazineTOP STORIESDonald TrumpSupreme CourtCongressImmigrationAbortionLatest PollsNEWSLETTERSThe MorningMake sense of the day\u2019s news and ideas.The EveningCatch up on big news, and wind down to end your day.See all newslettersPODCASTSThe DailyThe biggest stories of our time, in 20 minutes a day.See all podcastsWorldSECTIONSWorldAfricaAmericasAsiaAustraliaCanadaEuropeMiddle EastScienceClimateWeatherHealthObituariesTOP STORIESMiddle East CrisisRussia-Ukraine WarChina International RelationsThe Global ProfileLeer en Espa\u00f1olNEWSLETTERSThe WorldA guide to understanding the news, made for readers around the globe.Your Places: Global UpdateThe latest news for any part of the world you select.Canada LetterBackstories and analysis from our Canadian correspondents.See all newslettersBusinessSECTIONSBusinessTechEconomyMediaFinance and MarketsDealBookPersonal TechEnergy TransitionYour MoneyTOP STORIESU.S. EconomyStock MarketArtificial IntelligenceNEWSLETTERSDealBookThe most crucial business and policy news you need to know.On TechOur best tech reporting from the week.See all newslettersPODCASTSHard ForkOur tech journalists help you make sense of the rapidly changing tech world.See all podcastsArtsSECTIONSToday's ArtsBook ReviewBest SellersDanceMoviesMusicTelevisionTheaterPop CultureT MagazineVisual ArtsRECOMMENDATIONS100 Best Movies of the 21st CenturyCritic\u2019s PicksWhat to ReadWhat to WatchWhat to Listen To5 Minutes to Make You Love MusicNEWSLETTERSBooksReviews, news and features to help you find your next read.WatchingStreaming TV and movie recommendations.See all newslettersPODCASTSBook ReviewThe podcast that takes you inside the literary world.PopcastPop music news, new songs and albums, and artists of note.See all podcastsLifestyleSECTIONSAll LifestyleWellTravelStyleReal EstateFoodLoveYour MoneyPersonal TechT MagazineCOLUMNS36 HoursAsk WellThe HuntModern LoveWhere to EatVowsSocial Q\u2019sThe EthicistAsk the TherapistNEWSLETTERSThe WeekenderUnwind with stories about culture and the way we live.WellEssential news and guidance to live your healthiest life.See all newslettersPODCASTSModern LoveThe complicated love lives of real people.See all podcastsOpinionSECTIONSOpinionGuest EssaysEditorialsOp-DocsVideosLettersTOPICSPoliticsWorldBusinessTechClimateHealthCultureCOLUMNISTSJamelle BouieMaureen DowdDavid FrenchThomas L. 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Win ProjectionsNEWSLETTERSThe PulseDelivering the top stories in sports, Sunday to Friday.See all newslettersPLAYConnections: Sports Edition Connections: Soccer Edition Connections Coach U.S.InternationalCanadaEspa\u00f1ol\u4e2d\u6587Critic\u2019s NotebookWhat We Gain, and Lose, at a Phone-Free ConcertPhoebe Bridgers banned phones from her tour, forcing \u2014 or allowing \u2014 fans to be fully present in the moment.Credit...Illustration by Daniel BarretoSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTListen \u00b7 8:54 min Share full articleBy Lindsay ZoladzSept. 28, 2026Outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday evening, just before the first of Phoebe Bridgers\u2019s three sold-out shows, people were using their phones with a frenzied urgency. Some chatted with loved ones in that hurried, \u201cif I make it to the other side\u201d tone normally reserved for the moments right before a plane is about to take off. Others frantically snapped selfies and photos of their friends\u2019 outfits, many of which nodded toward Bridgers\u2019s macabre aesthetic and penchant for wearing skeleton suits.Though it was well outside of business hours, I quickly thumbed out a work email that probably could have waited until morning. I then joined the long, crawling line to surrender my electronic devices into a securely locked Yondr pouch and, for the next three hours or so, mandatorily live in the moment.Bridgers has banned phones (and AirPods, smartwatches and Meta glasses) from all stops on her 45-date Lost Tour, on which she is playing material from her excellent and emotionally wrenching new album \u201cLost Weekend.\u201d In the middle of her set, Bridgers \u2014 clad in a long, black lace dress \u2014 thanked us for setting aside our phones for the night and explained the decision as one of self-preservation.Bridgers\u2019s recent successes \u2014 her 2020 breakout album \u201cPunisher,\u201d the rise of the Grammy-winning folk-rock trio boygenius, in which she plays with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker \u2014 brought her \u201ca lot more attention than I was used to,\u201d she said. They had also coincided with \u201ca shitty couple years\u201d in her personal life. (Many songs on \u201cLost Weekend\u201d grapple with her father\u2019s death.) The pressure of visibility had led the 32-year-old singer-songwriter to consider quitting music entirely. The only way she could feel comfortable returning to the stage, and sharing such personal material, she told the crowd of 14,000, was to play phone-free shows. Unencumbered by hand-held devices, we applauded.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTPhoebe Bridgers is hardly the first musician to ban phones from her concerts. Alicia Keys, Childish Gambino and Jack White were all early adopters of Yondr pouches \u2014 the fabric satchels also used in Broadway theaters, comedy clubs, classrooms, courtrooms and even wedding venues.ImageCredit...Timothy O'Connell for The New York TimesOther artists opt for softer bans. Bob Dylan has used Yondr pouches, but when I saw him at Forest Hills Stadium this summer, the phone-free experience was enforced by ushers who chastised anyone sneaking pictures or recording video \u2014 and by the social pressure of not wanting to be seen doing something that Bob Dylan did not think was cool.Still, Bridgers\u2019s phone ban has been debated more vehemently than any other in recent memory, perhaps because her audience is younger than, say, Dylan\u2019s or White\u2019s, and more likely to contain digital natives who can\u2019t remember a time before smartphones.When she announced the ban, a small but vocal contingent online criticized the choice as classist (those who could not afford tickets would not be able to vicariously experience the concert via videos or FaceTime calls) and ableist (attendees reliant on phones to monitor medical conditions worried they wouldn\u2019t be able to attend).AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTNeither argument proved persuasive. People have been enduring the indignity of not being able to afford a concert ticket since long before smartphones existed, and venues are required to allow concertgoers to access phones for medical reasons.A more convincing argument: It is not very rock \u2019n\u2019 roll to tell people what they can and cannot do. Of Dylan\u2019s phone policy, the ever-contrarian rocker Damon Albarn mused in a 2024 interview: \u201cIf you start banning things, where does it end? I think you\u2019ve just got to turn up and do your thing. People won\u2019t want to be on their phone if you\u2019re engaging with them correctly.\u201dImageBridgers has banned phones (and AirPods, smartwatches and Meta glasses) from her Lost Tour, on which she is playing material from her emotionally wrenching new album \u201cLost Weekend.\u201d Credit...Ilya S. Savenok\/Getty ImagesI have witnessed some lovely live moments made possible by phones. I will never forget an awed Joni Mitchell, returning to the stage in 2023 for a nighttime concert at the Gorge Amphitheater, telling a crowd that held its cellphone lights aloft, \u201cYou look like a fallen constellation.\u201d When I saw Charli XCX in mid-September, her opening act, the hyper-pop artist Underscores, asked audience members to shine their phone lights on her before a ballad. The rapt crowd\u2019s sudden illumination was visible evidence of how completely she had won it over.Still, I have attended plenty more shows at which I have been distracted, or even appalled, by fellow concertgoers\u2019 inconsiderate phone use. I have watched too many performances through the screen of a taller stranger\u2019s phone or even \u2014 the horror! \u2014 iPad. I have made unwilling cameos in other people\u2019s selfies or mid-concert FaceTime calls. Earlier this year, when I saw the British pop sensation Olivia Dean at Madison Square Garden, a woman seated next to me spent most of the set posing for photos taken by her husband. She spent the entire encore lip-syncing into his camera with \u2014 the horror! \u2014 the flashlight on.Enough is enough, and the recent discussion surrounding the disruptive behavior of influencers at this year\u2019s U.S. Open Tennis Championships suggests that a tipping point could be approaching.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTI admit that I usually use my phone to take a few photos or videos at concerts, sometimes for reporting purposes, but mostly just to remember I was there. I like being able to flick back through my camera roll and determine exactly when something, like a Phoebe Bridgers concert, happened. What I don\u2019t like is how much of my memory I have outsourced to my phone. I used to have heaps of ticket stubs and a better sense of recall. Now I have a collection of shaky digital videos, the creation of which might have annoyed the people around me or the artist I was there to see.So, for one night, I gladly submitted to Phoebe Bridgers\u2019s social experiment.ImageThe use of phones at events may be reaching a tipping point.Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesAt first, I experienced a few banal pangs of curiosity that would have normally sent me fumbling for my phone. What time did the Walgreens across the street close? Could [REDACTED] believe that [REDACTED] was here, with [REDACTED]?! Had that colleague replied to the inconsequential email I had sent after the workday was supposed to be over?These thoughts subsided quicker than I expected. For the rest of the night, I did not really wonder what sort of apocalyptic news was possibly breaking outside, or what was being discussed in my text threads. Between sets, I visited a friend whose section, row and seat number I memorized before the show, and we enjoyed a pleasant conversation that did not rely on my illustrating anecdotes with pictures on my phone.Bridgers\u2019s staging featured laser lights, strobes and a U.F.O.-like half-bubble that sometimes flipped open to show a projection of what looked like the surface of another planet. It would have looked cool on Instagram. She brought out the other members of boygenius for an unannounced two-song reunion, a surprise that was greeted with eardrum-shattering screams. It was the sort of FOMO-inducing moment ready-made for mediation through thousands of tiny phone screens. But Bridgers forced us to be present \u2014 and to not miss out on the reality of our own experiences.The absence of glowing blocks in our palms did not suddenly turn a massive arena into an intimate club, and it also did not magically turn everyone into well-behaved, meditatively present concertgoers. Three men behind me still talked loudly about nothing throughout most of the set until I asked them, in the middle of a piercingly poignant song about Bridgers\u2019s dead father, to stop. It was almost refreshing to be reminded that phones aren\u2019t always the problem. Take them away and the person still remains.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTI sneaked out toward the end of the last song because I had been dreading the line to unlock my Yondr pouch, but it was a surprisingly quick and uncomplicated process. Outside, in the digital freedom of the open air, my reunion with my phone was anticlimactic. My colleague had not yet replied to my email. I did not have to look up when the Walgreens closed, because I could see that it was still open.As I waited to cross the street, a young girl walked past me, breathlessly filming a front-facing video. \u201cPhoebe Bridgers at Barclays Center, Night 1, and she was rocking,\u201d she said. She was right. But you really had to be there.From the commentsLindsay ZoladzPop music criticHow do you feel about phone-free concerts? Do you find that the mild inconvenience of locking your phone away in a pouch, and the inability to take video, text or check email during a show makes for a better experience for both the audience and the performer? Or do these mandates go too far?AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
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    "author_name": "Lindsay Zoladz",
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    "ai_headline": "What We Gain, and Lose, at a Phone-Free Concert",
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