Eilish showers fans with `TMI' at sold-out show
Billie Eilish embarked on yet another victory lap with her sold-out concert on Tuesday night at Chase Center in San Francisco.
“It's been quite a week, hasn't it?” the 20-year-old Los Angeles native asked. “You know what I'm talking about. This is the first show back since I won an Oscar.”
Though certainly not the wildest thing to happen at the 94th Academy Awards, Eilish's historic win with brother Finneas O'Connell in the category of best original song — for the title track to the great James Bond film “No Time to Die” — certainly surprised some people Sunday. And it seems that Eilish herself may be among that number.
“I mean, what the (expletive)?” she asked, punctuating her Oscar discussion from the stage.
The thing is, however, Eilish may well be celebrating an entirely different victory — or victories — this time next week. She has seven nominations at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, which could very well translate to yet another big Grammy night for the multiplatinumselling singer-songwriter who already has seven wins to her credit. (Oh, and her brother has a Grammy nomination for best new artist.)
Although her trophy collection grows ever more astonishing, Eilish hasn't seemed to change all that much herself over the years — at least based on what we see from her onstage. Sure, she's now one of the world's biggest stars, but she still comes across in concert like the same personable, funny and down-to-earth performer that I first reviewed in concert at San Francisco's intimate Great American Music Hall in 2018.
When I made assessment in that review that Eilish, then 16, could be the next big thing in the music industry, I had no idea that she would do so without having to change her game much at all.
Indeed, she seems to have won over the world simply by being herself.
Tuesday's concert was full of good songs and plenty of personality as Eilish chatted up the crowd, sang “Happy Birthday” to her mom and shared, by her own admission, “TMI” about such things as personal hygiene of the day.
“Dude, I just realized something so (expletive) up,” she said. “I (expletive) forgot to brush my teeth,” she said. “Mortifying.”
Yet her self-described bad breath seemed to only make the fans adore her more. The admission played right into her whole anti-star persona, which makes Eilish — who wore a baggy T-shirt, shorts and white sneakers — seem very relatable.
Kicking off the set with the memorable “Bury a Friend” — one of eight numbers performed from the terrific 2019 full-length debut “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” — Eilish had the capacity crowd singing along at top volume from the get-go.
It was humbling to watch the fans in the audience as Eilish continued through such offerings as “Therefore I Am” and “My Strange Addiction.” Their faces — particularly their eyes — told the story. These weren't just any old songs to them, but rather ones that mattered deeply to their lives.
The connection that Eilish has with her fans is the single most important aspect of her show, negating the need for the kind of high-budget special effects — from thematic costumed skits to fireworks — that many pop music stars lean on.
Still, Eilish did have some very big-budget aspects to her concert, including one of the biggest stages I've ever seen at an arena show. It looked like someone had docked half a battleship on the arena floor.
Yet the stage size didn't really factor much into the show, since it simply provided more room for Eilish to hop, dance and, of course, sing to the music being made by brother O'Connell (performing on a number of instruments) and drummer Andrew Marshall.