Billie Eilish @ RAC Arena
w/ Sampa the Great
Thursday, September 29, 2022
The cult of Billie descended on RAC Arena for the first of two massive shows on Thursday, and the 20-year old LA megastar didn’t disappoint when it came to bells and whistles. This production had it all, from extended stages to B-stages; from lasers to confetti explosions; imperial lighting and engaging visuals. Best of all it featured a host in Billie Eilish who was likeable, energetic, charismatic, and on point. There were three rules: don’t be an asshole, don’t be judgy, and have fun. Simples.
Sampa the Great brought a refreshingly huge support set, with an eight-person stage show including two amazing dancers, scene-stealing backing vocalists and a band all the way from Zambia. Reminding us they were the first Zambian act to play Coachella or the Sydney Opera House, the one time Aussie-based artist infused her homeland’s culture into the performance of highlights such as Final Form and Black Girl Magic, and every cheesy crowd involvement technique worked, proving Sampa an ideal hype act.
Speaking of using cheesy cliches, Billie Eilish also milked the audience for a lesson in playing to your crowd. As subversive and edgy as her brand usually is, this was happy Billie, and she wanted everyone to feel the love as much as she was. She’s a perfect role model to her young fans, many of which were likely at their first big concert. She’s also an undeniably real artist in a world of manufactured, fake ones (not only do she and brother Finneas write their own music, they produce it without outside help, something nearly unheard of in pop music at her level).
But it’s this genuine realness that made some of the obvious moves difficult to swallow. Sure, many in attendance were young enough not to have realised that crouching on the floor then jumping up, or using your phone torch, or cheering to the left-then-right-then-back-then-middle, in turn, have been routinely done time and time again by every pop and hip-hop act since forever at stadium shows. Everywhere.
These excursions into the obvious made everyone feel included, no doubt, but it meant the true spectacle was left to the opening and closing portions of the night, while in between the platitudes extended to splicing together awkward short medleys of her best songs that crucially killed the momentum of fan favourites like Bellyache and Copycat.
Still, when it was on, the spectacle was awe-inspiring. Take her entrance: a feast of blinding strobes greeted her two-piece band before Eilish flew from underneath up through a trapdoor onto the stage, Robbie Williams-style, to kick off Bury a Friend. Interestingly, that was the last song she’d played on her previous visit to WA, at an unforgettable Fremantle Arts Centre show in 2019 when she was just 17-years old.
I Didn’t Change My Number featured a LOT of backing track and it was difficult to see exactly how much the band of two (drums plus Finneas on all other instruments) actually did live. Truthfully, this was an issue all night and Eilish herself had so many layers of vocals in the backing track that occasionally it was karaoke at best. On Getting Older, for example, the entire first verse was sung via backing track while she returned from the B-stage to sing the second verse on the main stage, while the “acoustic section” also featured plenty of additional instrumentation coming from…somewhere? Look, everybody does it, but sometimes a little suspension of disbelief helps, and a couple of additional band members or backing vocalists would go a long way to remedying this.
Of course, it’s easy to forgive an artist who is wowing you every other minute. Early on it was the segue from NDA (featuring the timeless lyric “Had a pretty boy over but he couldn’t stay/ On his way out made him sign at NDA”) into fellow kiss-off track Therefore I Am, another masterclass in calling the bluff of some wannabe young hotshot (“I don’t want press to put your name next to mine/ We’re on different lines”). And the crowd chanted every word straight back at Eilish – this was probably the loudest a Perth audience has been since Kendrick Lamar in 2018.
Eilish comes from a very different place to Taylor Swift, but her lyrical and pop smarts make her an inevitable successor to Swift’s crown as the world’s most relatable pop star. On latest single TV she touches on America “overturning Roe vs Wade,” and on Thursday that single line had thousands of young women singing along in commiseration, despite how new the track is.
Following a speccy trip to a flying B-stage, the run home included a number of highlights. When the Party’s Over featured its original jaw-dropping music video, just as it did in Fremantle three years ago; All the Good Girls Go To Hell had the most political visuals of the night with Eilish making clear her views on climate change and our need to act now (not for the first time at the Arena that week); Everything I Wanted was simply huge in the live setting as booming drums kicked in for the finale; then instead of an encore, Eilish announced there were two songs left (just as she did three years ago) and it didn’t take a genius to work out what they were.
Ironically, during an arena-pumping Bad Guy, there was little doubt that Eilish was in fact the good guy, as she professed her undying love for a screaming fanbase (that clearly love her equally as much). Then she showered us in confetti in time for Happier Than Ever to close the night, in a simply awesome display of pretty lights and sparkly paper flying around.
As they had all night, the cult of Billie sang every word, felt every rush of emotion, screamed every “fuck” in the coda’s eviscerating emotional release, and waited around afterwards for this unique pop star to come into the audience and hug them in a nice personal touch to end the night.
It might not have been for everyone, but this was a masterclass in knowing your fanbase. Hopefully as that fanbase gets broader, Eilish’s performances will become even more universal, all while staying as edgy as her albums are now.
HARVEY RAE
Photos of the tour provided by Management
