Phoebe Bridgers plays her largest ever headline show at the Islington Assembly Hall, London

24 May 2018, 11:26 Photography by Parri Thomas

(Photos)

(Phoebe Bridgers)

Last night Phoebe Bridgers came back to the capital to stun a sold out crowd. We were there to capture the whole thing and go for a wander around Islington with Phoebe before the show. Before Phoebe took to the stage her collaborator and friend Harrison Whitford - illuminated almost exclusively by a microphone stand of fairy lights - performed a solo set running through his repertoire of delicate and fragile numbers. Think Demolition-era Ryan Adams. Bridgers joined him to close the with duets on ‘Part Time Heart’ and a cover of Paul Simon’s ‘Slip Slidin’ Away’. “I remember being here this time last year and playing a tiny church,” Phoebe tells a sold out Islington Academy Hall as she plays her largest ever headline show to date. Continuing her run of full-band shows, Bridgers eased her way through Stranger in the Alps, reworking tracks from their album counterparts to fit the guitar, drums, piano and violin set up. There’s a ‘slowcore’ version of crowd favourite ‘Motion Sickness’, a stripped back cover of Tom Petty’s ‘It’ll All Work Out’ and an encore of ‘You Missed My Heart’ that left very few dry eyes in the house.