Arenas weren’t made for people who whisper.
They were made for athletic feats and grand gestures — “the hammer of the gods,” as Led Zeppelin, one of the early arena-rock bands, called it.
Every now and then, though, the quiet voice rises up to these heights. Over the course of a half-decade, Billie Eilish went from a 15-year-old making intimate bedroom-pop with her brother Finneas to jumping around for the masses in hockey arenas.
That she could do that with flair shouldn’t be a shock. For those who know her history, which was surely everyone at the sold-out PPG Paints Arena Tuesday night, her breakout single, “Ocean Eyes,” was for her dance class.
Billie Eilish is live in the Burgh for the first time pic.twitter.com/YeBYz9O2PI
— Scott Mervis (@scottmervis_pg) February 9, 2022
In short, Billie has moves, both graceful and violently abrupt. They were on display, along with her purring vocals, Tuesday in her long, painfully awaited Pittsburgh debut.
The 20-year-old LA alt-pop sensation is touring behind “Happier Than Ever,” the Grammy-nominated follow-up to her Grammy-winning full-length debut “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” Loving the new album, as most of her faithful do, was key, because she rolled through almost the entire thing, mixing in “When We Fall Asleep” songs and assorted singles.
Following an opening set by Australian singer-rapper Tkay Maidza, our star made a playful entrance, leaping out of the floor, looking semi-goth girl in her loud black graphic T and shorts set and black pigtails pointing up.
She greeted us with “Bury a Friend,” making the evening’s opening line to her fans, “What do you want from me?”
They wanted oh-so much — a passionate performance, visceral thrills, real emotion, authenticity, humor, a sense of belonging and shared experience — and over the 90-minute set she delivered that beautifully.
She even gave them blood.
It dripped down her legs after she rolled around on the floor singing “Strange Addiction.”
“Why do I bleed so much from my knees?!” she hollered. “Do you see I’ve got like eight Band-Aids on my knees? Oh my god. that’s so stupid!”
It fit right in actually with all the harsh red lighting hitting us in the first half of the set.
On a spare stage with a wide video screen providing treats and horrors, she was flanked by Finneas, multi-tasking on guitar, bass and keyboards, and drummer Andrew Marshall, perched far away on their separate cubes.
On most songs, they spewed loud industrial pop grooves and beats that competed with the vocals. Eilish went from menacing to explosive on “NDA” and “You Should See Me in a Crown” and accented the beauty in her pipes with the sweet pop balladry of “Halley’s Comet” and the darker pop balladry of “I Don’t Wanna Be You Anymore.”
On the more high-energy songs, she had the aid of a vocal track underneath.
After getting the whole arena bouncing with “Oxytocin” and quivering with “ilomilo,” she and Finneas stripped things down.
“He really is so ungodly talented,” she said of her brother.
Seated, with acoustic guitars, her dreamy vocals soared through the lovely plea of “Your Power.” Strumming the opening of “Male Fantasy” for a little too long, she yelled the f-word and laughed, saying, “I forgot the words! Just the first line.” She recovered to give the song a fragile, pretty reading.
Billie Eilish was excellent ???? pic.twitter.com/DiIkjxEZOw
— Allison (@AllisonB) February 9, 2022
Changing gears, we were distracted by a moody video of a blonde Billie while she dashed through the crowd to a cherry-picker that lifted her high above the floor, putting an ironic twist on “OverHeated,” a song about how celebrities are placed on a pedestal.
It was kind of weird to see the creator of all that dark pop lead the crowd in doing the wave, but, ok, she probably had concert consultants.
A tender moment found her watching home movies of a baby Billie roll through the weary “Getting Older,” as she sang, “things I once enjoyed/just keep me employed now.”
Before getting to the final act, she sat down to tell her fans to breathe, “be in the moment, drinks lots of water and go to the bathroom constantly — well, not constantly, but UTIs are no fun.”
That seemed to break new ground for teen-pop concert banter.
If you didn’t have water, the cascading melody of “When the Party’s Over” still felt refreshing.
Giving the crowd a two-song warning, she thanked them for standing out in the cold and told them, “I wasn’t in the best mood earlier today but you guys flipped that around!”
She certainly looked elated bouncing through the devilishly joyful shout-along of “Bad Guy.” With confetti floating, “Happier Than Ever” went from its swaying opening into a noisy, distorted climax.
Once the confetti hit the floor and the three players rolled and slid down the ramp, the thousands of mostly young girls went back out into the cold just about as happy as ever.
BILLIE EILISH SETLIST
Bury a Friend
I Didn’t Change My Number
NDA
Therefore I Am
My Strange Addiction
I Don’t Wanna Be You Anymore
You Should See Me in a Crown
Billie Bossa Nova
Goldwing
Halley’s Comet
Oxytocin
Ilomilo
Your Power
Male Fantasy
OverHeated
Bellyache
Bored
Getting Older
Lost Cause
When the Party’s Over
All the Good Girls Go to Hell
Everything I Wanted
Bad Guy
Happier Than Ever
First Published: February 9, 2022, 4:39 a.m.
