Phoebe Bridgers at Islington Assembly Hall

Phoebe Bridgers
Harrison Whitford
Islington Assembly Hall, 23 May 2018

On the cover of Phoebe Bridgers' debut album, Stranger In The Alps, a young Bridgers in her grandfather's yard is blanked out with white paint and made to look like a ghost - the white-sheeted kind - while her grandparents' dog looks on in the background. Funnily enough that slightly faded photo is a beautiful representation of her music. It sounds almost sepia-tinted and filled with old haunting remembrances: memories made ghostly as if they were painted white with sadness and regret.

The stage setting which features the same photo minus the figure of Bridgers and the later ghostly addition hanging as a backdrop, adds to this effect, with Halloween-like glowing fairy lights strewn around the drumkit and microphone. It's only a small touch yet deeply effective. When Bridgers herself appears - pale skin, her hair bleached an ashy blonde, wearing a simple but elegant black trouser suit - there's something beautifully ghostly about her too, with her sparkly guitar shimmering under the lights.

Of course Bridgers is only 23 years old and when she speaks between songs it's in total contrast to her plaintive songs: she's funny, sweet, charming and full of beaming smiles throughout. How did such sad, moving music come from this lovely young woman?

 A big part of it is her voice of course, which becomes immediately clear with the first song, Smoke Signals, which begins with Bridgers alone on her acoustic guitar, lamenting the death of Lemmy and Bowie, and her superb band kicks in, a subtle drummer (to be fair, he's often left doing nothing), her guitarist Harrison Whitford (who also opened the show) and violinist (she also plays keyboard), who provides the swelling strings on the tracks.

The set is pretty much the album played live, as her only releases so far have been the album and before that the Killer EP (produced and released by Ryan Adams), but this of course is no bad thing as the album was easily one of the best from last year. 

There are spectacularly moving moments such as when she sings Funeral, a song inspired by a real experience of singing at a funeral for a kid "a year older" than her. But then she becomes chatty and tells stories of her snotty younger brother (who she dedicated Would You Rather to) who has a particularly disgusting dorm room, or tells tales of catching scabies from Whitford when they were kids and even discusses medical shows on British TV, expressing surprise that seeing someone go to the doctor for a sinus infection is entertainment here (I'm with her on this one), "we can't even go to the hospital in the States!" she tells us.

These light moments add a little joy to all the sadness but of course it's those beautifully plaintive songs that we are all here for and Bridgers' voice is so much more moving and wonderful hearing it live: it's crystal clear, bittersweet and, yes, disarmingly haunting, often soaring above the music and leaving the audience in awed silence.

In addition to the album tracks she also plays Steamroller from the Killer EP and a rather beautiful, stripped down version of Tom Petty's It Will All Work Out, which is such a lovely tribute to Petty (his death still hurts, so it's nice to hear him continue to be celebrated).

She leaves two of the album's highlights to the end, first, the single Motion Sickness, which she calls a "hate song" and, despite the lack of bass, packs more of a punch live (it's nice to see the drummer actually getting to play more than gentle accompaniments too).

But Scott Street is the one I've been waiting the whole night for and it doesn't disappoint, starting like a Ryan Adams tune in his prime, recalling moments from her past in her hometown (although Scott Street is really an avenue, she reveals) and building wonderfully to a swirl of guitars, strings and Rolling Stones-like woos. It was definitely worth waiting for.

The crowd of course demands an encore and gets just one more: the only remaining track from the album, her cover of the Mark Kozelek & Jimmy LaValle song, You Missed My Heart, where Bridgers leaves her guitar behind and takes the opportunity to move closer to the audience. It's a nice ending to the show.

Less than a year ago she was playing a tiny church in London, she tells us, now here she is playing her biggest show yet. One things for sure, Bridgers is definitely a singer on the rise. Next time the venues will be even bigger.

A quick note about the opening act Harrison Whitford, a childhood friend of Bridgers as well as her bandmate. His music was equally mournful and captivating but the most enjoyable moment was when he invited Bridgers to the stage to beautifully duet with him on the song Part Time Heart and, best of all, the Paul Simon classic, Slip Slidin' Away.