Billie Eilish’s third album came without warning. No singles, barely a teaser, something to be experienced as a whole. It’s easy to see why, for ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’’s cover, Billie was submerged in a pool for several hours. Immersive and all-encompassing, the record’s current tour evokes the same feeling.
It’s the second of six nights she’ll play at The O2 (the second time she’s done this many shows at this very venue, though in 2022, her run was interrupted by her Glastonbury headlining slot), and the decision to take on several nights at the same venue as opposed to doing a lengthy arena tour makes sense when you’re met with the stage: a whopping great thing in the middle of the standing room. Hanging from the ceiling are what looks like a Jumbotron and four illuminated columns, then a giant cube in the centre of the stage, all set to move throughout the set.
Eilish also arrives with little warning. She’s alarmingly punctual at the (against her peers, comparatively) early time of 8:15pm and announced by appearing atop the cube. She gives a sly smile in response to the applause and launches straight into ‘CHIHIRO’.
It’s ironic that, when talking about ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’ in Rolling Stone, Billie said she didn’t like doing singles because without the context of the album, the song is like one little kid alone in the middle of the room; not only because this record spawned several hits, three of which – ‘CHIHIRO’, ‘LUNCH’ and ‘WILDFLOWER’ – are all played within the first fifteen minutes tonight, but also because she sort of is alone in the middle of the arena. The band (this tour marks the first time it hasn’t included her brother and collaborator Finneas) sit in a dipped portion of the stage while Billie performs almost atop them, impressively commanding every square foot.
Billie’s always seemed like the singular artist who’s bridged the gap between bedroom pop and harder-edged electropop, the setlist tonight demonstrating that well. It bobs and weaves between those two styles, juxtaposing quiet moments from her debut ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?’ like ‘ilomilo’ with her big breakout hit ‘bad guy’; later on, on a B-stage where a stage would traditionally sit, the devastating ‘everything i wanted’ follows the raunchy Charli xcx feature ‘Guess’. Her power over the room is of course amplified by the big, pyro-shooting moments, but the most striking of them all arrives very early on when she asks for silence while she harmonises with herself on a loop pedal for ‘when the party’s over’, every single person complying until the words come in and they’re free to join her singing.
Where most of Billie’s discography has her whispering, ‘HIT ME…’ sees her belt, for the first time properly letting her vocals rattle off the walls of the arena on ‘THE GREATEST’ and the extended ‘L’AMOUR DE MA VIE’. When echoed by the 20,000-ish people in the room, it feels totally cathartic, and sets the stage for the final two tracks performed, the blazing career-highlight ‘Happier Than Ever’ and last year’s big hit ‘BIRDS OF A FEATHER’, which offers a much gentler kind of euphoria to close out the show.
If ‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’ saw Billie EIlish at her most vulnerable, the tour mirrors that fantastically. The 360 view of the stage leaves nowhere to hide and everywhere to go. Even though she could viably be selling out stadiums at this point, Billie’s said she prefers the intimacy of an arena (imagine being such a star on impact that arenas feel intimate to you!?), but for all it’s tight, tiny moments and laid-bare lyricism, this isn’t an intimate show in the slightest. It’s a spectacle.
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