Phoebe Bridgers charms fans at Surly Festival Field

A lot has changed since Phoebe Bridgers last played in the Twin Cities in 2018. Her 2020 sophomore release Punisher garnered her four Grammy nominations and a massive new fanbase along the way. And earlier this year she played Saturday Night Live for the first time. On her return to Minneapolis, Bridgers had two First Avenue shows scheduled but that all changed weeks before when she decided not to play indoor venues on her fall “Reunion Tour”. So the two shows were moved into one at Surly Festival Field and the age restriction was dropped to 12+.

Surly Festival Field was near capacity with mostly young fans filling the lawn when I arrived on a cloudy Saturday evening. Indie-pop band MUNA played a fine and danceable opening set before Phoebe Bridgers took the stage at 8:15pm and plugged her electric guitar with a smile and said to the screaming crowd, “What’s up?” The set started with “Motion Sickness” from her 2017 debut Stranger in the Alps before she strung together the Punisher singles “Garden Song” and “Kyoto“. Her voice sounded pure and fantastic.

The set slowed down through the middle and during “Smoke Signals“, Bridgers stopped the song when a fan up front was apparently having medical troubles. After making sure the fan was ok, the band finished the song. Along with the venue change and lowering the age restriction, this incident proved that Bridgers honestly cares about and appreciates her fans.

From then on it felt less like a concert, and more like humans uniting in an experience together. In an ode to Minneapolis legends The Replacement, Phoebe Bridgers later mixed in a cover of their song “Here Comes a Regular”. Her amazing Punisher single “I Know The End” was the last song played before the encore. From the start, Phoebe Bridgers had the Minneapolis crowd captivated and it is no wonder that her popularity is on the rise. She is an amazingly talented songwriter and a real human being.