She destroyed the instrument on ‘Saturday Night Live’ – or at least tried to. But her arms must be tired from carrying the music industry over the past year
Amal Abdi, February 9th 2021
Indie darling Phoebe Bridgers may have gained notoriety as someone who makes great music to cry to, but this weekend, as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, she channelled her energy into the true mark of a rock’n’roll renegade: smashing her guitar on stage. Bridgers, who wore her signature skeleton onesie, gave two mighty performances with ‘Kyoto’ and ‘I Know the End’, both of which appeared on her brilliant second album, ‘Punisher’.
On record, Bridgers closes the cacophonous ‘I Know the End’ by screaming into the abyss, but she went one further on SNL, destroying her guitar instead. Or at least attempting to – the instrument put up a good fight. But Phoebe gets a few points as by now her arms must be a little tired from carrying the music industry over the past year.
Naturally, people on Twitter came in with their hot takes, suddenly on the side of that unrepresented group: guitars. Many of the reactions against her criticised her anger or that her actions were “extra” or odder still, wasteful. “People are going homeless, and it’s a pandemic”, one wrote, “but I’m a fucking rockstar! Not a good look.” Bridgers responded that it was a Danelectro guitar and that the company had given their blessing: “I told danelectro I was going to do it and they wished me luck and told me they’re hard to break”.
