What's it like to attend a concert without your phone? Here's my experience
by Sarah Gambles deseret news · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Phoebe Bridgers' Salt Lake City concert required attendees to lock phones in Yondr pouches.
- The phone-free environment enhanced the concert's intimacy and allowed fans to be present.
- Bridgers expressed gratitude for the phone sacrifice, valuing the show's unique experience.
SALT LAKE CITY — Could you sit through an entire concert by one of your favorite artists, without a phone?
That's exactly what nearly 20,000 fans did Wednesday night at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City to see superstar Phoebe Bridgers perform on her "Lost Weekend" tour.
As soon as you entered the venue, you agreed to place your phone inside a sealed Yondr pouch that can only be unlocked upon leaving.
At first, I felt a little lost without my phone. What if someone needed something from me? And I had no way of knowing the time, since I don't wear a watch.
But as soon as Bridgers took the stage, all thoughts of checking my phone faded away. The music artist dominated the stage with a performance to remember.
What a Phoebe Bridgers no-phones show is like
Energy remained high throughout the sold-out show, and the absence of phone screens was noticeable.
Nearly everyone in the arena's lower bowl stood for the entire show, swaying along to the music.
Bridgers' aesthetic is moody and depressing, and her music contains haunting melodies that transport the listener to an often dark place. Although her sound is sometimes considered "sad girl music," the vibe in the room was upbeat and energetic.
And the stripped-down acoustic sections felt even more intimate without people waving phones around.
Without the light glowing from phones, the lighting for the show — which synced to the songs — created an even more dramatic and contrasting experience. The darkness felt much more dark.
The crowd came prepared with lighters and glow sticks to wave around during the serenade songs.
"I'm grateful you were willing to sacrifice your phones to be here," Bridgers said during the show.
She explained that she liked the intimacy a no-phones show brings, and that sometimes when videos had been posted online from her past shows, some internet commentators turned something "sweet" into something "vile."
"I can't even begin to express how amazing it is to be out here and for it to just be for you guys," she said.
Many songs from her new album "Lost Weekend" seem to "grapple with her father's death," The New York Times reported after her New York City show.
And the pressure of fame almost forced the singer "to consider quitting music entirely." So "the only way she could feel comfortable returning to the stage, and sharing such personal material," was to have the show be phone-free, per the Times.
The crowd in Salt Lake City seemed to largely consist of Gen Z fans, a generation that grew up with complete access to phones. It was interesting to see members of that age group without phones.
Two girls in front of me came prepped with notebooks, jotting down thoughts throughout the show. A group of girls a few rows down had their arms around each other for much of the show.
During her song "Lost Boys," the pit was a sea of jumping fans. And when she played "Scott Street" as the last song, the entire crowd was seen waving their arms to the music.
Would that kind of magic happen if people had access to their phones? I don't think so.
Not the first artist to lock down phones during a show
This isn't the first time an artist has put a lockdown on cellphones.
Jack White also often enforces a strict phone-free rule, while other artists like Bob Dylan and Florence + The Machine strongly encourage attendees to keep their phones put away.
Not having a phone forces concertgoers to be present and live in the moment, but it does make it so that only those who can afford a ticket to the show get to experience their favorite performers' tour if they go in person.
Part of what made Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour so memorable and so peak was the streaming aspect of the shows. Millions of fans around the world would log on to TikTok and YouTube to catch which surprise songs the music artist selected, watching videos that had been filmed and posted online by fans attending the concerts.
Fan-created videos often serve as user-generated content to create viral marketing campaigns for an artist's show or performance.
Without phones, the performance is just for those in attendance, which you could argue makes it that much more special if you are lucky enough to get to attend.
Who is Phoebe Bridgers?
Bridgers has been writing and performing songs since she was a teenager. Her sound is melancholic, and at times, somewhat depressing lyricism is incorporated into her music.
Her fame skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic with her 2020 album "Punisher," and around the same time, she also joined the critically acclaimed supergroup Boygenius alongside Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus.
During 2023, she opened for Swift for The Eras Tour, and the pair even sang a song together during Swift's "Red" set — a song that Bridgers is featured on called "Nothing New" that explores how the public and the media treat young female artists.
She's been featured with the likes of Swift, The Killers, SZA and Kid Cudi on different songs.
On Nov. 7, she will be featured as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live."
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.