Phoebe Bridgers has ditched the internet to promote her new music. It works

For six years, I’ve found myself randomly wondering, “Is this the year Phoebe Bridgers finally puts out a new book?” Album“?” The answer was always a resounding “no.”

That changed on May 8, when mysterious posts appeared Roswell, New Mexicoannouncing a same-day show at Liberty, a venue that holds a few hundred people. Small pop-ups advertised by Traveler have followed in places ranging from Lubbock, Texas, to Macon, Georgia. On Thursday, another pop-up — also announced via flyer — will appear in a decidedly larger location: Madison Square Gardenwhere Tides is a sponsor and tickets are $1.

However, despite nearly 20 performances, I did not hear a single note of the new music. No recording is permitted, and concert-goers are asked to put their phones down Small bags. The dearth of information has turned fans into detectives trying to determine where the next show will be and if or when a new album will be released.

When there’s a “mix of music and content, scarcity becomes a powerful tool,” says Jesse Sacks, a cultural marketing strategist. This, in turn, can help artists make their work stand out in the age of virality.

“A lot of the rollouts have resisted the normal Internet cycle,” says twilightxgalaxy, the moderator of the Phoebe Bridgers subreddit who asked to remain anonymous to protect his privacy. “Information was limited, fragmented, and sometimes only available to people physically present, which made each new detail seem even more important.”

The daily drip of information and online sharing turned “a surprise announcement into a large-scale community detective project,” they say.

This detective work involved a daily series of casual speculations, which included educated guesses based on a theory that was playing out in places with a history of UFO sightings as well as a fair share of wishful thinking. Group chats emerged as people scoured their cities in real life looking for flyers. People digitally collect images of cards handed out at shows that look like part of a larger image — perhaps an album cover — and speculate about the musical themes.

As a fan, I wasn’t above a little light detective work myself. Did you ask Claude to make a list of potential tour stops in California based on the fan theory that she was playing places with UFO sightings? Were you prepared to drive eight hours to Area 51 to take a photo to see her live with a few hundred people? Yes I did and yes I was.

My investigation unfortunately yielded no results, but LeAnna Chase Williams, a Cincinnati-based content creator, was able to crack the code. She pegged a place called Burl in Lexington, Kentucky — the city she grew up in — as a possible next stop for the tour after the Chattanooga, Tennessee, show.

Chase Williams was following the tour as it passed through the Southeast and across Appalachia. Lexington is located just under five hours from Chattanooga and is a college town, a common theme of many of Bridgers’ shows. The Burl is “one of the only great independent music venues in the Lakes,” says Chase Williams, “and when I looked up their event schedule and saw that the next day they randomly had no event booked, I knew something was up.”

She drove up on May 22 and waited in the rain for hours with dozens of other fans who had made the same bet, and was rewarded when Bridgers’ crew showed up with posters advertising the show.

She describes sitting cross-legged watching Bridgers perform on the couch in front of an audience of about 200 people as “the best.” Chase Williams, 26, says the no-phone policy “made the whole experience.” “I really wish every concert was like this, now that I’ve experienced it.”