[ATTENDED: February 22, 2022] Billie EIlish
Back in 2019, I bought tickets for my daughter and I to see Billie Eilish’s tour in 2020. I was really looking forward to it because I’d heard that she put on an amazing show.
I was especially looking forward to the energy and the visuals. Then COVID came in and we watched with bated breath as concerts were cancelled. And then she postponed the whole tour. Ultimately, she cancelled it.
And actually that proved to be not a bad thing in the long run. The opener we had was much better than Denzel Curry. And our new seats proved to be terrific. When she announced the tour for the new album, we were given a pre-sale code since we had tickets for the earlier show. Then in May of 2021 I grabbed tickets and waited nine months!
The only bummer was that this new tour was for her newly released, more mature album (she’s all of 18). And I didn’t really like it. I thought it was kind of bland. I love that Billie is singing and not mumbling like she does on the first album–and I was really impressed by her voice. But I found the album lacked the dynamics of the first one.
She was performing most of the album live. Although I see that in the previous tour she did a whole middle section of covers, which I don’t really like, so that’s okay then.
I also thought she’d dress like the album. But nope, as you can see she was good old punky Billie. And she played 26 songs and performed for about an hour and forty-five minutes.
Billie came out in the most amazing way. Lights went down, spotlights came up. Her brother Finneas was on a riser with synths, guitars and drums and her drummer Andrew Marshall was on the other riser.
After a minute of intro, Billie sproinged onto the stage from beneath the stage. Like from a trampoline! I have no idea how she did it–but what an entrance!
And that’s when the screaming started. The girls in the audience were a wall of noise. A force of nature. I have been to many loud shows and I am not embarrassed to wear earplugs. But I have never had to put them on because of the constant screaming of the audience. Billie even seemed taken aback by it. Of course she may have just been saying that, but it seemed sincere enough–she wasn’t expecting quite the roar from Jersey.
She started with an old song and I was pretty excited to hear “bury a friend.” Her stage was pretty spare. A large video screen behind her, a giant ramp that led to the risers that the boys were on anda long runway that went halfway into the audience.
And that’s all she needed. She was full of energy–bouncing during the bangers. She approached the crowd during the slow songs–I couldn’t quite tell if she could high five anyone from the stage. But the crowd hung on her every move.
There were some great videos during some of the songs–a giant spider walking around; the opening to the Never Say Die James Bond Movie, a nifty underwater scene, and a road full of cars (and her on the ramp which had lights that looked like lines in the road moving along with the video screen).
She also had great lights–nothing wild, just well executed.
Much like with the Pinegrove show, I was delighted with how much more interesting the new songs sounded live. I was concerned that the show would be kind of mopey ballads, but even the slower songs were banged up a bit. “NDA” and “Therefore I Am” were both really swinging.
I really enjoyed “You Should See Me in a Crown.”
She chatted with us quite a lot–acknowledging the crowd and the dozens of signs that people made. She checked in on us to make sure we were doing okay. And when there was a crisis of some sort, she made sure the security guards knew about it.
But she also knew that we wanted to have fun. At one point she said that fun was about to be had. But only if we all participated–everyone. Old people, parents, kids–make sure the people near you all do it. She had us all sit during the quiet part of the song and when the drop came we were all to jump and bounce. And every person did.
After a big bouncing banger like “Oxytocin,” she an Finneas performed two acoustic songs in the middle of the stage. They each played a guitar and she sang “Your Power,” a song with great lyrics. It’ kind of a dark song, but that didn’t stop two women from getting engaged at the end of it. Billie noticed and was very excited for them–wishing them well-as everyone in the room cheered. She then did a song that she felt was very important: “Male Fantasy.”
She told us all to sit and relax for these songs. And it was a nice breather. Because when the song was over I noticed a lot of people gathering by the GA fence in front of us with their phones out. Then dawned on me that Billie was going to come past us. A few seconds later, she ran past us, high fiving everyone. We were in the second row, which was too far away for high fives, but did allow for a fairly clear video.
She was heading to the back so that she could sing from a crane. Yes, a giant crane lifted her up into the higher seats. 
She swung around to different parts of the arena letting the cheap seats get a good look at her. She also encouraged everyone to do “the wave” with their phone lights, which was pretty neat.
She went back to the main stage and finished up the set with mostly songs from her first album. Lots of big bass notes and bouncing and girls screaming all the words.
She also had a song with images of terrible things happening around the world–environmental devastation, people needing to protest for Black Lives Matter, violence and devastation. She said the video made her cry and she was worried about the future. But if her fans could take it as seriously as she did (she had a lot of political things for the fans to get involved with), there’s hope for the future.
But she couldn’t end on a downer. And there was no way she couldn’t play “Bad Guy,” so I was pretty psyched when that one finally came around. I also had the funny realization as the girls were all screaming the words–you can’t do a snotty “Duh” when you’re screaming it. It just doesn’t work.
And then the room exploded with confetti. And there’s few things I like more than a good confetti shower.
She ended the show with “Happier Than Ever.” It was a great slow burning song with a terrific buildup. And it allowed for the girls to scream a line much more effectively. When the song reached the main part: “Just fucking leave me alone!” the crowd roared the line and it did my heart good hearing all of these girls scream for their own independence like that
She commanded the audience for an hour and forty-five minutes. She knew how to pace the show between fast songs and slow songs. She checked up on the fans to make sure people were okay. She was an amazing performer.
SETLIST
Intro tape
- bury a friend ⊗
- I Didn’t Change My Number €
- NDA €
- Therefore I Am €
- my strange addiction ⊗
- idontwannabeyouanymore ¥
- lovely (Billie Eilish & Khalid cover)
- you should see me in a crown ⊗
- Billie Bossa Nova €
- GOLDWING €
- Halley’s Comet €
- No Time to Die ‰
- ilomilo ⊗
- Oxytocin €
- Your Power [acoustic] €
- Male Fantasy [acoustic] €
Not My Responsibility [tape] € - OverHeated [on crane] €
- bellyache [on crane] ¥
- ocean eyes [on crane] ¥
- Bored ß
- Lost Cause €
- when the party’s over ⊗
- all the good girls go to hell ⊗
- everything i wanted ⊗
- bad guy ⊗
- Happier Than Ever €
Goodbye [tape]
€ Happier Than Ever (2021)
‰ from No Time to Die soundtrack (2021)
⊗ When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)
¥ Don’t Smile at Me EP (2017)
ß from 13 Reason Why soundtrack (2017)
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