Now a big star, Phoebe Bridgers largely keeps it chill, and rocks a cheesehead, at BMO Harris Pavilion show in Milwaukee
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Phoebe Bridgers demonstrated a new way to determine if a song is compelling at a packed BMO Harris Pavilion in Milwaukee on Friday.
We’ll call it The Cheesehead Test.
About two-thirds into the singer-songwriter’s 83-minute set, recurring chants of “cheesehead” roared up from the pit, because, Wisconsin. Bridgers paused, noticed a piece of Dairy State novelty headwear in a fan's hands, grabbed it, and put it on.
“Don’t (expletive) laugh at me,” she said, chuckling herself.
Bridgers asked the crowd if they could take her seriously if she wore it while playing a song. And then she launched into "Savior Complex" — and not a single snicker could be heard, even with the giant, cheese-replicating foam triangle on her head.
"Baby, you're a vampire," she sang about a dependent, troubled lover, with the crowd mesmerized. "You want blood and I promised/I'm a bad liar."
How good of a songwriter is @phoebe_bridgers? She wore a goofy cheesehead during “Savior Complex” and the performance was still powerful. Review @journalsentinel https://t.co/YcSyCRRRge pic.twitter.com/AXrrFZgF5M
— Piet Levy (@pietlevy) June 4, 2022
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Lyrics like those, from her 2020 sophomore album "Punisher," turned Bridgers into a big star, as a surging fanbase found solace in the vulnerability of her words during a terrifying pandemic.
Bridgers' funny social media presence also has brought some levity to a dark time, and there was a touch of humor during Friday's show. After sweetly saying "Happy Pride everyone" — there was a small rainbow flag on the stage, and PrideFest was happening simultaneously at Maier Festival Park — Bridgers sharply quipped, "What a fun time for corporations to sell yourselves back to you!"
And Bridgers' choice of hard-rock band Disturbed's "Down With the Sickness" as her introduction music, ahead of her set opener "Motion Sickness," was pretty amusing.
Despite that aggressive mood-setter, Bridgers' set was a largely laid-back affair.
Sure, this was a big stage with several thousand people in attendance. And there were some slick animations on the screens surrounding her, including a recurring pop-up storybook motif. Bridgers and her five backing musicians also sported those now signature black skeleton outfits that undoubtedly helped move merch sales. (The lines were huge Friday.)
But Bridgers seemed pretty nonchalant about this sudden stardom thing, and for a large part of Friday's performance, didn't feel the need for flashy showmanship. She tapped the drum cymbal with her finger for "Halloween," sang a bit while kneeling, and calmly slid down into the pit to let a fan belt out some verses into her mic for "Scott Street."
But it was telling that during that song she was upstaged by her cute dog Maxine, who made an onstage cameo in the hands of one of her entourage who joined the band for a singalong.
(Like her human, Maxine was rather chill.)
So instead of straining herself to command the stage and seize the moment, Bridgers followed her instincts, and let her lyrics do the heavy lifting. They had gotten her this far, and were truly the stars of the show.
"It's amazing how much you can say/When you don't know what you're talking about," a disenchanted Bridgers sharply sang to an ex (actually her drummer and sometimes co-writer, Marshall Vore) for "ICU."
"You asked to walk me home/But I had to carry you," she sang to a thoughtless partner for "Moon Song" the narrator still tragically pines over. "Stuck your tongue down the throat of somebody who loves you more/So I will wait for the next time you want me like a dog with a bird at your door."
Bridgers' new single "Sidelines" suggests her songwriting skills are getting even sharper, as she explores how even someone's giving love can have consequences. "Watching the world from the sidelines/Had nothing to prove," she sang over the band's gentle folk-rock swell. "'Til you came into my life/Gave me something to lose."
Bridgers acted like she had nothing to prove Friday, but there was one exception: the goosebump-inducing set climax "I Know The End," with its pulse-quickening musical build around Bridgers' increasingly urgent vocal allusions to "a slaughterhouse," "an outlet mall," "slot machines" and "a haunted house with a picket fence." Once the tension proved too great, Bridgers and her fans — mostly, like her, young women — together let out a visceral, full-throated scream, as Vore, trumpet player JJ Kirkpatrick and guitarist Harrison Whitford went wild, the pop-up book image of a house on the big screen catching fire and burning to a crisp.
That moment proved Bridgers can do the theatrical rock-star thing if she wants to. But for the most part Friday, she just wanted to be herself.
And judging from the crowds' response, that's exactly what her fans want for her.
.@phoebe_bridgers was really chill in Milwaukee Friday, but “I Know The End” was an intense, amazing climax. Review and great pics by Jovanny Hernandez @journalsentinel https://t.co/YcSyCRRRge pic.twitter.com/ZJI82m8S5F
— Piet Levy (@pietlevy) June 4, 2022
The takeaways
Bridgers revealed Friday that some of her comments at recent shows about gay rights, her pro-choice stance and health care have prompted some people to walk out. "And I'm like, 'Get out,' " Bridgers said to cheers, without making any big political statements Friday.
Much of the music world may have moved on from COVID-19, but Bridgers hasn't, requiring proof of vaccination status to get into her show Friday and encouraging fans to wear a mask, which many did.
Bridgers’ biggest Milwaukee fans camped out for more than 12 hours Friday, with about a dozen young fans waiting around since before 8 a.m., when Journal Sentinel reporter Bill Glauber was at the Milwaukee World Festival offices for a board meeting.
Bridgers has become popular enough to have a budding music empire, reserving her opening slot Friday for Charles Hickey, a likeminded singer-songwriter and the latest signee to her Saddest Factory Records label. But beyond boosting Hickey’s career with the record deal, and giving him the opening slot on her tour, Bridgers also joined him for his closing song “Ten Feet Tall,” to make sure he got as much attention as possible. (Bridgers also invited him on stage during her set, to sing along for "Chinese Satellite.")
The setlist
1. “Motion Sickness”
2. “DVD Menu”
3. “Garden Song”
4. “Kyoto”
5. “Punisher”
6. “Halloween”
7. “Smoke Signals”
8. “Funeral”
9. “Chinese Satellite”
10. “Moon Song”
11. “Scott Street”
12. “Savior Complex”
13. “ICU”
14. “Sidelines”
15. “Graceland Too”
16. “I Know The End”
Encore
17. “Georgia”
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Phoebe Bridgers rocks cheesehead at BMO Harris Pavilion in Milwaukee
