Great news for Phoebe Bridgers: she’s booked to play Latitude festival this year. The bad news? The ultra-talented Californian singer-songwriter and queen of Gen-Z indie isn’t headlining. Veteran pop rockers Snow Patrol are, 15 years after they first topped the bill at the very first Latitude back in 2006.
Bridgers is more than capable of headlining a festival. Her live performances are a joy to witness: intimate, romantic and captivating. Others clearly agree. A film of her 2020 gig at Red Rocks in Colorado has almost a million views on YouTube, and her huge online following (1.2 million Instagram followers and compared to Snow Patrol’s mere 227k) is reflected in sold-out shows around the world. Her latest album, the sublime, understated Punisher, received three Grammy nominations and near-unanimous adulation from critics. “Punisher ends with a thunderstorm of manic, discordant brass and drums and a pained scream, the physical culmination of the undercurrent of doom that has lurked throughout,” said The Independent’s glowing review. “But you emerge feeling not deflated but purged. Punisher has the effect of a particularly pummelling massage.” Now tell me that doesn’t sound like it translates to a great live experience?
