Phoebe Bridgers spent her 32nd birthday in a hospital bed after being diagnosed with appendicitis. And along with her own disappointment, she promised to make things up to fans for having to cancel the UK shows of her current tour.
Bridgers’ road trip, in support of latest album Lost Weekend, runs until December 12, with many shows already sold out. She expects to return to action on September 14, with events before that date called off.
“I got appendicitis for my birthday,” she posted on Instagram stories feed (which has now expired), along with a picture from her hospital bed. “Everything in the UK this week will have to move, but I’ll make it up to you!”
Bridgers had only announced the English low-key run last week, which was to consist of two shows each in London, Brighton and Bristol. She’d already performed twice at London’s Union Chapel before falling ill. The scheduled tour contains further, larger U.K. appearances in the fall.
Appendicitis is a painful infection that causes the appendix to become inflamed. It’s potentially fatal and diagnosis is often followed by urgent surgery, but treatment is generally effective and patients usually recover fully after rest.
Lost Weekend is Bridger’s third solo album, following 2020’s Punisher –—although she also released Boygenius’ The Record in 2023. In a recent question-and-answer session with fans she explained it had taken her longer than she’d planned to make the latest release.
“I kept booking studio time and then putting it off, and booking studio time and putting it off, and putting it off,” she said. I really wanted to be making something. I started going in and then taking six months off and then going back. So this album took forever. Which is great!”
In addition to Bridgers, the album features a number of guest guitarists. They include Godflesh guitarist Justin Broadrick, who Bridgers invited after becoming a fan of his shoegaze/post-metal side-project, Jesu. (Bridgers is also a metal fan, judging by her previous use of electrics from B.C. Rich.)
Other guests include Boygenius bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, longtime sideman Harrison Whitford, Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford’s son, American Football’s Mike Kinsella, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner. Greg Leisz adds pedal steel to six tracks, while Blake Mills, who has worked with Bob Dylan, Perfume Genius and Beck, contributes synth guitar to opener The Outside, plus bass and guitar throughout. The lineup is rounded out by Bridgers protégé Christian Lee Hutson, session guitarist Meg Duffy (of the War on Drugs and Perfume Genius) and Alex G.
