When teen doom-pop sensation Billie Eilish played her first arena concert in New Zealand on 25 April, RNZ Music sent two young fans to their first ever concert with one jaded old music fan.
All agreed it was a night of dreams and much feels for those onstage and in the crowd.
Sophie Park and Tahu Moore review Billie Eilish Photo: Yadana Saw
“This can’t be for real,” says Billie Eilish as she looks out to an ocean of adoring eyes stretched right up into the nosebleeds of Auckland’s Spark Arena.
It’s a sentiment shared between the 17-year-old singer whom BBC anointed pop’s best new hope (way back in 2017)and her fiercely dedicated fan base.
While waiting for Billie to take to the stage, Yadana Saw's two 12-year-old charges breathlessly tell her that it's like a dream to have their first real-life glimpse of their pop idol at their first-ever concert.
Why not also make it their first-ever concert review?
Sophie explains what it was like before Billie came onstage: “I felt very nervous when we were waiting because I knew that I would see Billie Eilish for the first time ever and I also felt very excited because it was one of my first concerts.”
Tahu, our other concert buddy, adds: “It was nerve-wracking, counting down every second.”
Taking in her fellow concert attendees, Tahu observes “everyone tried to look Billie Eilish, they had dyed their hair blue or grey like she has and they were wearing outfits from lots of her music videos. There were goth Billie Eilish outfits”.
When Billie’s opening video sequence commenced, oh how the crowd screams.
I have never heard such a piercing, fervent welcome from an audience and that was even before the performer was onstage.
Tahu comments that the opening montage references many of Eilish’s music videos.
Sophie, who filmed Billie’s entrance on her phone: “I started crying and when she came on stage I was screaming ‘it’s Billie Eilish’ over and over.”
Tahu interjects: “In a teary screaming voice. It was right in my ears. But you were very sweet, though.”
Seeing Billie Eilish for the first time Photo: Yadana Saw
Billie kicks off the opening night of her 'When We Fall Asleep' tour with the lilting, bouncy 'Bad Guy', pogoing around the stage.
Spark Arena is heaving in perfect time as Auckland drowns out the singer herself with their word-perfect rendition.
Tahu recalls that Eilish “was immediately putting her mic out to the crowd to sing along with her and she’d just jump around. She’d stop singing during the chorus and let the audience sing it.”
“I had no expression when she was speaking to the crowd. I couldn’t believe I was at a Billie Eilish concert.”
Two songs into the show, Billie asks for the house lights to be turned up so that she can survey her audience.
The Auckland crowd catches the 17-year-old singer by surprise, even though she's just played prime-time sets at the Coachella Festival.
Her bandmate, best friend, closest collaborator and big brother Finneas O'Connell – who was also the opening act – gives her a reassuring hug.
Tahu notes this particular moment before Eilish performs her Khalid duet 'Lovely'.
"Billie Eilish said “‘we can do the breaking down later’, and ‘I must be dreaming, this is crazy.’ ...The crowd were screaming every time she finished a sentence.”
Sophie agrees: “She was super teary. Tahu didn’t show any emotions and I was showing everything. I was giving everything. I was excited, amazed, nervous. I can’t believe she was talking to me. I thought she was looking at me.”
Tahu says she's similarly absorbed in her first concert experience.
“I was trying to see her face and what she actually looked like – it was quite different from the videos.”
During Finneas's support act, Tahu also notes how differently she’d imagined him: “I thought he was the younger brother.”
The tween reviewers remark on Billie's brother's seamless transitions between his keyboard, synth pad, acoustic and electric guitars, all whilst remaining very much the singer-songwriter-frontman.
Finneas's set showcases him as the musical backbone of his sister’s project and gives glimpses into the pair's shared phrasing and musical ideas, although his solo material is a lot less experimental, glitchy and subversive than their Billie Eilish output.
A few songs into his set, and very early into the night, the crowd spontaneously whips out the smartphone torchlight experience for the elder O’Connell sibling.
Sophie thought that she would: “look up his music on Spotify, but I wouldn’t binge him like I do Billie. His stuff is quite poppy, compared to Billie’s style”.
Tahu clarifies the appeal of Billie: “The way she sings is different to all the other singers I’ve ever heard”.
Both Finneas and Billie Eilish utilise musical and vocal effects alongside expert timing to perform with their high-production backing tracks.
Perhaps this is indicative of their Soundcloud music roots where pre-recorded elements are simply part of their sonic palette.
Yet beneath the AMSR-inducing sounds and rippling sub bass, Finneas and Billie are emotive and captivating singers.
Once Billie settles into her slower ballads ('Listen Before I Go', 'ilomilo'), her voice exudes a delicate sweetness that could win over anyone skeptical of her breathy, whispery talk-singing delivery on songs like 'You Should See Me In A Crown' and 'My Strange Addiction'.
Not so obvious to her mostly under-20 crowd, but clearly evident to chaperones in the audience, is the precocious confidence and ease with which the young performer works the crowd.
Early in the set, before performing 'Copycat', Billie lays down specific instructions on how low she wants the crowd to crouch down.
Tahu explains: “She said in the bridge 'I want you to crouch down'. When it happened she said 'lower, lower, lower'.”
Glancing around, the comparatively older attendees, including myself, creakily crouch down at the behest of the teenager onstage.
Sophie adds: “She was very interactive with the crowd, she was very much 'let’s do this together'.”
Though when Billie lies down in the middle of the stage for the plaintive 'When I was Older' (a single featured on the Music Inspired by Roma), “it's a bit strange because no-one really does that," ponders Tahu.
Billie Eilish's appeal partly comes from the sense that she’s a unique performer who does things differently.
Unlike other contemporary female pop stars, her sensibilities are far from the manicured, saccharine and poised perfection of Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, and there is no adherence to the conventions.
Billie's curious relatability, evident in the reaction of the capacity crowd, comes from her seemingly wearing what she wants, dancing how she wishes and singing lyrics that are as dark, absurd and comical as she pleases.
To her fans she relatable rather than aspirational. She gets them.
During 'Wish You Were Gay', Tahu recalls Billie’s request of the crowd.
“She told us ‘You can keep your phones out and record but don’t look at them the whole time and be in the moment’.”
Near the close of the show, after the siblings perform a stripped-back, live debut of 'I Love You' – and the cellphone torches illuminate Spark Arena for a second time – Eilish addresses the crowd with the delightful earnestness and insistence of an adolescent experiencing the “moment”.
“I want you to give me everything. Be here,” she asks of the crowd, mentioning that it was just over a year ago, she and Finneas performed 'When The Party Was Over' for the first time ever at the Tuning Fork – a 200-capacity side venue in Spark Arena.
Tahu, captivated by the emotion of the moment, recalls later: “Billie Eilish said ‘I want everyone to hold hands and say I love you, but the crowd said it to her and then she said ‘not to me, to the person next to you’.”
Even the cynical and jaded grown-ups obey Billie's order.
It's a moment for us oldies to remember being a bright-eyed new fan, and for the younger ones, their first precious musical memories.
In conclusion, Tahu describes the concert as “the best thing in the whole entire universe”.
“I feel like it wasn’t real at all. I’m still getting over the fact I’ve seen my favourite singer at my first concert.
“I will sing along much more than I normally do from now on.”
After the show, Sophie – who was enraptured by the whole night – is still processing what she experienced: “She was amazing. I’m just so happy.”
In many ways, the concert and Billie Eilish herself reflected the mood and emotions of the crowd.
At times, the entire hall seemed infused with the intimacy of a small group of friends dancing together in a living room.
For one night in Auckland, a young woman on stage and her adoring crowd shared both dream and reality – the excitement of something longed for and anticipated finally happening in front of your eyes.
Billie Eilish review notes Photo: Yadana Saw
Setlist: Bad Guy, My Strange Addiction, Lovely, You Should See Me In a Crown, Idontwanttobeyouanymore, &burn, Copycat, When I Was Older, Wish You Were Gay, Xanny, All Good Girls Go To Hell, Ilomilo, Listen Before I Go, Bellyache, i love you, Ocean Eyes, When The Party's Over, Bury A Friend.
