No phones allowed: Phoebe Bridgers takes ‘The Lost Tour’ to Europe
Phoebe Bridgers hosts a concert in Madison Square Garden. Tickets cost as little as $1 (€0.87) and there isn’t a phone in sight. The year is 2026. Last week, the singer-songwriter stunned fans with a pop-up...
Phoebe Bridgers hosts a concert in Madison Square Garden. Tickets cost as little as $1 (€0.87) and there isn’t a phone in sight. The year is 2026.
Last week, the singer-songwriter stunned fans with a pop-up show at the iconic New York arena, followed by news of a lottery offering tickets for less than a pack of chewing gum, the proceeds of which went to support people in immigration detention centres.
The low ticket prices weren’t the only surprise. Smartphones were banned.
Attendees had their devices locked away in Yondr pouches – specialised, soft-sided locking cases that have become popular in schools – before entering the venue, leaving a crowd of 20,000 to experience the performance without filming, streaming or posting.
Bridgers reportedly performed eight new tracks while seated on a sofa to a rapt, if captive, audience.
Now she’s taking her no-phones show on the road.
After a month of shows across the United States, Bridgers will bring ‘The Lost Tour’ to northern Europe with 14 shows in November and December.
Former Black Country, New Road frontman Isaac Wood will join her throughout the tour’s northern European leg, which stops in Dublin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Stockholm and other cities.
Keep your phones at home, say fans and bands
Bridgers is among a growing number of artists and fans alike questioning whether smartphones have fundamentally changed the live music experience.
Online, complaints about phones at concerts are easy to find.
A recent sold-out Hayley Williams concert in Milan prompted multiple Reddit threads bemoaning audience members who spent much of the show filming it.
“A solid 1/3 of the concert goers were videoing and photoing the entire concert (sic),” wrote one user.
Another, less family-friendly thread referenced audience members filming themselves singing along to Williams’ songs, among other perceived offenses, declaring the audience was the worst ever seen at a concert.
“Insane behaviour imo,” said one user in reply.
As phones become an increasingly unavoidable part of live music – and life in general – some artists, like Bridgers, have tried to put them back in people’s pockets.
Bob Dylan, for one, has used phone-locking Yondr pouches on tours for years, banning phones across a whole UK and European tour in 2024. Jack White has long championed phone-free shows. Tobias Forge, frontman of Swedish rock group Ghost, recently described the band’s phone ban as a “life-changer”.
Even Adele, back in the simpler times that were 2016, made headlines after singling out a fan recording her rather than watching her performance.
Not every musician is waging war on smartphones, though.
In 2024, Blur frontman Damon Albarn criticised Dylan’s phone ban, arguing that artists should focus on engaging audiences rather than restricting them. “People won’t want to be on their phone if you’re engaging with them correctly,” he told the BBC.
Wherever you fall on the phone divide, Bridgers is betting that enough fans want to experience her music in the moment rather than through a screen.
Tickets for the ‘The Lost Tour’ go on sale on 10 June through her websiteand are likely going to sell quickly. You can sign up for pre-sales now.
