Phoebe Bridgers Performs ‘Kyoto’ in Her Bedroom (and Carnegie Hall)

Phoebe Bridgers made another unusual late-night appearance this week, performing a strings-only version of “Kyoto” from a bedroom on The Late Late Show With James Corden.

Bridgers starts off by singing in bed, microphone in hand, flipping through her phone between verses. She then gets up, walks through a cloud of smoke and — through the power of green screen and a dream sequence — ends up performing onstage at Carnegie Hall. She finishes the rest of the song there, still in her pajamas, alongside six clones of her violinist. As “Kyoto” ends, the backdrop cuts away and Bridgers is left bowing in front of the green screen, to canned cheers and a hail of bouquets and roses.

Back in April, Bridgers kicked off her series of Covid-era late-night performances by playing “Kyoto” from her bathtub on Jimmy Kimmel Live! She’s done a few more since, including a performance of “Savior Complex” from a haunted Christmas attic on The Tonight Show and “I Know the End” in an empty theater on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. All of the songs come from Bridgers’ latest LP, Punisher, released this past June.

Earlier this month, Bridgers released a music video for “Savior Complex,” directed by the similarly named Phoebe Waller-Bridge and starring Normal People actor Paul Mescal. “Phoebe Waller-Bridge is an angel,” Bridgers told IndieLand. “And I hope that we get to get married so that we have the exact same name.”