\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe screams started long before the lights dimmed at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden on Thursday night \u2014 layers and layers of them, bouncing off the walls of the arena. The merch lines wrapped around the concourse, with the customers broken up into sections so as not to interrupt foot traffic. Outside, fans climbed upstairs from the underground, emerging out of the Penn Station subway entrance. It\u2019s been freshly painted orange and blue, to celebrate the Knicks being in the N.B.A. finals for the first time since 1999. But despite the occasional cheers of \u201cLet\u2019s go Knicks,\u201d this isn\u2019t a basketball game. It\u2019s a Phoebe Bridgers<\/a> concert.<\/p>\n \n\tThis show was a total surprise, announced just four days ago, with $1 tickets available only through lottery. It\u2019s the finale to an incredible month, in which the 31-year-old singer-songwriter resurfaced<\/a> for the first time in three years, shocking fans with acoustic pop-up shows across the country. That run began in Roswell, New Mexico, and capped last weekend in Fargo, North Dakota, all at intimate clubs that only hold several hundred people. So it was only natural that the trek culminated at a place that holds 22,000, roughly more than 50 of those venues in one room. (If that math is incorrect, feel free to quote the opening line to \u201cWaiting Room\u201d: If Bridgers was a teacher, we\u2019d totally fail her class.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe last time Bridgers performed at the Garden was in October 2023<\/a>, when she made her debut at the historic venue with her supergroup boygenius<\/a>, alongside Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. Before that, she was on tour behind her 2020 breakthrough album, Punisher<\/em>, released six years ago this month. But unlike those shows, tonight was a phoneless affair, with devices locked away in Yondr pouches (we were given black bookmarks, with silver ink telling us where we were seated). That made the entry process long and tedious, but it was more than worth it \u2014 particularly to see the crowd illuminated only by the flames of lighters raised high in the air, a euphoric feeling many of them were probably experiencing for the first time, having been too young in the pre-smartphone era. Bridgers told the crowd that she loved the \u201cinternet-free zone,\u201d though she knew some were probably breaking that rule. \u201cIf any of you stuck an Apple Watch up your ass to record this, please don\u2019t post it on the internet,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m trusting you.\u201d<\/p>\n