About 5,000 Phoebe Bridgers fans – many of whom were screaming through tears – gathered at Boston Seaport to watch the artist’s reunion tour at the Leader Bank Pavilion on Monday night, the second night of her stopover in Boston.

Bridgers’ most recent album, “Punisher,” was released during the initial COVID-19 lockdown last year on June 18. Now she’s finally taking her deeply personal and emotional second 11-track studio album on the road.

Even before scanning their tickets, fans had to show proof of vaccination before entering the venue.

MUNA – a Los Angeles-based electronic queer pop group who just signed with Bridgers’ label Saddest Factory Records – opened for Bridgers during the shows.

The trio was the perfect opening to inject energy into the crowd. Many of the audience seemed to be absorbing the music instead of singing, but that didn’t mean they weren’t having fun.

After playing a range of songs from their discography – from the heartbreaking “Crying on the Bathroom Floor” to the sluggish “Everything” – MUNA had a surprise for the audience.

Their penultimate track was their new hit “Silk Chiffon” – their irresistibly catchy September 7th track with Bridgers. In the show, Bridgers herself stepped in to make a quick appearance before she got ready to sing her verse – and the crowd went mad the second the first chord was hit.

Before wrapping up their set, singer and MUNA co-producer Katie Gavin thanked Bridgers for giving the band the opportunity to perform with her, calling them “our dad, Phoebe Bridgers.”

When Bridgers finally came out for her own set after a brief hiatus, the roar of excitement from the crowd was deafening. Not the type to be too flashy, Bridgers waited until the applause died down and simply greeted the crowd with a nonchalant “Yo”.

Bridgers’ setlist included the entire “Punisher” album. She sang it in the original order of the album, with a few older songs sandwiched in between.

She started the show, however, with her hit “Motion Sickness” from her debut album “Stranger in the Alps”. This more upbeat but still emotionally saturated song for Bridgers was a perfect opening to engage everyone.

Between thunderous cheers and emotional ballads such as “Moon Song” and “Savior Complex,” Bridgers told instant anecdotes about the songs’ origins – many of which relate to mental health and parenting struggles – and how far her career has come. . .

The set design for the show used colorful lighting and gobos to project patterns onto the white canopy of the amphitheater without including many other rooms. Bridgers kept the instrumentation simple, even his more instrumental songs like “Kyoto” only needed a few musicians, and the simplicity of the ensemble reflected that.

At the center of this set was a backdrop with rotating graphics that depicted “Punisher” like a storybook. Each song had a unique visual in the style of a pop-up book that unfolded and came to life behind the band.

From the graphic of saltines on a carpet reflecting the lyrics of “Graceland Too” to the moon rising as Bridgers sang “Moon Song,” the simple illustrations enriched the already rich narration of Bridgers’ lyrics and added to her simple charm.

During his last song from the main set and finale of “Punisher” – “I Know the End” – the backdrop showed a “haunted house with a picket fence,” a reference to the song, slowly burning behind the group. . The song refers to an apocalyptic feeling, Bridgers told Genius, which she feels as she travels up the northern California coast, and existential reflection on having repeated the journey through so many stages of life.

At the end of this song, there are screams and harsh screams in the recording. The audience joined in in venting all his frustration and screamed with Bridgers – creating a beautiful and incredibly strong moment of release.

Bridgers also performed a callback to a song from comedian Bo Burnham’s “That Funny Feeling” in his 2021 Netflix special “Inside”. There seemed to be a significant overlap between the two artists’ fan bases that night, as the audience sang every word of the song.

I was overall pleasantly surprised by the energy of this concert. Phoebe Bridgers is my go-to artist when I need to cry to music, so I was worried that the great hall wouldn’t lend itself to the intimate feeling that “Punisher” has.

I’m so glad the expectation was wrong. A young and engaged audience completed what could have been a depressing spectacle and made it a lively and energetic appreciation of Bridgers’ music.

Never underestimate the power of simplicity and emotion to deliver an unforgettable performance, which the Phoebe Bridgers Reunion Tour has expertly done. Bridgers deserves all the recent accolades she’s garnered for achieving this.