What did I just watch?: Phoebe Bridgers showcases 2nd solo album on RELEASED! With Zack Fox

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By Luke Guillroy

It’s a Tweet brought to life. Two of Twitter’s premier personalities, singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers and comedian Zack Fox, joined forces to launch Bridgers’ new album, Punisher. Fox’s influence on the 90-minute Twitch livestream is obvious. It’s an extended interpretation of his absurdist humor. Bridgers, who has become a must-follow Twitter comedian in her own right, raises the audience interest in the stream with her live performances. The show was … rough. In terms of plot, it’s an acid trip idea that never got a sober revision. There are awkward silences, talking roaches and spiked punch. It certainly should not work. But I loved every second. 

The end product somehow feels more chaotic than its premise: Fox, and his talking cartoon dog “Marlow,” are helping Bridgers traverse space to get ingredients for a punchbowl, so she can go to Cyber Goth Prom where she will be performing. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not supposed to. It is in-line with Fox’s comedy. Fox launched a comedic career after becoming Twitter famous back in the mid 2010s under the handle @BootyMath (he’s now just @ZackFox). His comedy is undoubtedly of the internet era: it often gets him suspended from the app. It’s brazenly weird, shocking and appears alongside his tweets advocating for a social anarchist society. 

In the opening minutes, Fox announces that he is already drunk — in real life, not as the character version of himself. It feels like a poorly thrown together skit but endearingly so, and as much as Bridgers’ performances save the stream, they almost seem to fit within its ethos. Bridgers’ bedroom pop, indie rock, self-produced sound feels at home in the “Film Production 1101” style show. 

Bridgers music and personality are the heart of the show. Early on, she plays an acoustic version of “Kyoto,” a song off the new album, and one of her most danceable tunes yet. Bridgers rarely makes “feel good” music, but Kyoto is exactly that — until you get to the lyrics. She leaves no room for ambiguity during the livestream. “This song’s about my DAD,” she says with a sardonic chuckle. Her absent father is calling from Japan to tell her good news: he’s sober, the Pacific Ocean between them goes unmentioned. “I’m gonna kill you / If you don’t beat me to it,” she sings. The lyrics are intimate, but the song itself is too bouncy to be concerned. I feel guilty for dancing while she’s pouring out about something so close to her, but the moment doesn’t last. After the single-song performance, the stream jumps back to the show: Fox and Bridgers are talking to a human-sized roach. 

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Twice throughout the stream Fox plays the role of journalist. First, he asks Bridgers about the new album: What’s it about? What does the title mean? She answers candidly, cutting herself off mid-sentence to collect her thoughts. Essentially, a Punisher is that person who just won’t shut up. They’re hitting on you or just generally oversharing, and you can’t get away. Bridgers has anxiety because she thinks she’s a Punisher. “It’s an album about saying stupid shit in social situations,” she says. The social situation of this stream is Bridger’s performance at the Cyber Goth Prom, where a cartoon banner congratulates the Class of 2369. She opens with “Motion Sickness,” the hit song off her first solo album Stranger in The Alps about her emotionally abusive relationship with a one-time mentor. As Bridgers sings about an issue that led to her speaking out in the New York Times against her abuser (it’s Ryan Adams), images sent in by viewers with the theme “Goth Prom” flash on screen. After the song, they announce the two best outfits. Bridgers is in her element, never dwelling on one emotion, one joke, and just rolling on. 

At one point she talks about genre. Fox asks what her genre “actually is.” Is it something she even believes in? She says yes because it would be “corny” to act like she’s not influenced by other artists. It’s a humble statement from an artist putting out the best music of her career and doing so with a Twitch stream that makes me feel like I’m on amphetamines. The title track, referencing her greatest influence Eliott Smith, says it all: “When the speed kicks in / I go to the store for nothing.” It’s how the stream feels. I oscillate between careful examination, pouring over every lyric from a generational talent, and dissociation, staring through the talking roach on my screen and blacking out for an entire song. I guess that’s what I came here for.