Phoebe Bridgers appeared as the musical guest on Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live for an interstellar performance of “Moon Song”. The track comes from the singer-songwriter’s Grammy-nominated 2020 album, Punisher.
Appearing alongside Bridgers was Rob Moose, who provided violin accompaniment to Bridgers’ voice and nylon-stringed acoustic guitar. Moose contributed to several songs on Punisher and is himself an arranger and co-founder of the chamber ensemble yMusic.
The performance between Bridgers and Moose is sparing, with the bandleader’s haunting voice leaving sonic gaps that are themselves a vital piece of the song. Performing in NASA jumpsuits, the set for the performance carries an outer space theme to align with the “Moon Song”. Something about the evocative voids left in Bridgers’ music feels spiritually connected to the vast emptiness of space.
Bridgers is coming off a headline-grabbing performance at Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival, where her sound was cut off in the final minutes of her set. After lambasting the Texas festival on Twitter, ACL responded by apologizing for an apparent “miscommunication” between the production staff and proceeded to make a sizable donation to Texas Abortion Funds. Bridgers’ championed the same network of Texas women’s reproductive rights organizations earlier this month when she covered Bo Burnham‘s “That Funny Feeling” and donated all the proceeds to TAF.
Watch Phoebe Bridgers perform “Moon Song” on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Bridgers travels to California this week to finish out her tour with shows in Berkley (10/16) and Los Angeles (10/21, 10/22) before wrapping with a set at Shaky Knees in Atlanta, GA (10/24). For tickets visit her website.
Phoebe Bridgers — “Moon Song”
[Video: Jimmy Kimmel Live]