Phoebe Bridgers made a surprise stop in Macon — and it meant something

Three framed paintings, two lamps and a couch. And Phoebe Bridgers.

At 9 a.m. Saturday, May 16, Bridgers’ team posted flyers announcing the Grammy Award-winning artist would be performing at Macon’s Capitol Theatre that evening.

Thanks to a flurry of speculation and wishful thinking, more than 75 people were already in line — soon to be joined by several hundred more hopeful fans.

The show was shrouded in mystery. Bridgers began her tour in New Mexico and then made stops in Lubbock, Little Rock, Memphis, Mobile and Jackson, Mississippi.

Macon, long renowned for its music history, often falls off the beaten path for touring artists. Yet Bridgers, who has never performed here before, added the city to her tour.

Some speculated the tour focused primarily on cities with notable UFO sightings. While there have been claims of extraterrestrial visits to Middle Georgia since at least the 1970s, it seems Bridgers chose Macon for another reason.

She opened the show with a popular song (in keeping with the show’s secrecy, I won’t name it, but take a guess based on her Spotify Top 5). As she started a setlist of new material, however, the show took on a new meaning.

Bridgers took time to lambast “Cop City,” the recently built Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which has been criticized for the destruction of the South River Forest. Those critiques have often coincided with criticism of the Atlanta Police Department and its collaboration with the Israel Defense Forces.

As Bridgers continued to play unreleased songs, she shared more personal reasons for performing in Macon. She asked the crowd how many of them had conservative parents. I would quote her directly, but she prohibited phones and electronic devices in the venue. Many concertgoers raised their hands, and Bridgers launched into a short monologue, expressing gratitude for her dad for shedding the conservative ideologies of his parents.

The show continued, and it made me wonder: did Bridgers choose Macon for its supposed UFO connections or for the large number of progressives who grew up in a South inundated by conservatism?

The set ended in a sweet yet somber moment. A concertgoer shared with Bridgers that her father had recently passed, and Bridgers became visibly upset. Rather than proceed with the music, she stepped away from her guitar and couch, walked down the stage stairs and embraced the fan.

Bridgers played several more new songs and closed the concert with a few more previously released tracks (also unnamed, in honor of the anonymity of the show). At the end of the night, she sat at the edge of the stage and signed one item for each fan who was willing to wait however long it took to reach the front.