Billie Eilish w/ The Marías
Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA
12.05.24
As we near the end of 2024, it’s growing nearly impossible to find new superlatives to describe Billie Eilish’s continued excellence. For over five years, her iron grip on the charts, fashion, personality, and art has shaped the public in such a seismic way that it almost defies belief that she’s still only 22 years old. Is she a cultural icon? Wunderkind? Musical dynamo? Yes, yes, and yes. But she exceeds all of those labels in such a gigantic way, her sold out Climate Pledge concert on Thursday the most recent proof, that one would wonder how it’s possible that in October 2017 her tour stop in Seattle was at intimate The Crocodile Back Bar.
The first night of Seattle’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour” began with gravitas, and what felt like an earthquake, as a wall of synths hit like thunder in the midst of a laser light show, the whole arena shaking from the rumble of the bass as much as the roar of the crowd. Billie descended from the rafters in a large cube, effortlessly and pitch-perfectly delivering the first notes of “CHIHIRO.”
Unlike most concerts at Climate Pledge, the dynamic, rectangular stage was set in the middle of the arena. The stage’s placement afforded every fan a great view of the show, and Billie used every inch of that stage over the course of the night, giving each section focused attention at one point or another. Megahit “Lunch” saw Billie awash in high contrast red lighting, while “NDA” and “Therefore I Am” kept the energy suitably high.
Now, anyone who has attended more than a handful of concerts can tell when the artist is connecting with the fans at their core, in a genuine and joyful way, or if they’re phoning it in and viewing the performance as simply a job. There’s no phoning it in with Billie, as her authenticity and actual care for the audience shone through each time she’d stop between songs and smile radiantly as the audience drowned her in applause and cheers, or when she exclaimed part of the way through her set, “I want you to know. This is a safe space for all of you, and especially the women in the audience. This will always be a safe space. I will always fight for you and defend you.” When she says it, she means it, and you believe it.
Adding live vocal harmonies to create the building blocks of “when the party’s over” required absolute silence in the arena for over a minute, and the result was easily one of the highlights of the night. As Billie sprinted on and around the stage, at one point high-fiving everyone on the stage’s perimeter, the connection between her and the audience only deepened. At one point she emerged on a smaller, more intimate stage detached from the main for “Guess” and “everything i wanted”, absolutely shredded on the guitar and keys on other standouts “ocean eyes”, “What Was I Made For?” and “Happier Than Ever” before bringing the night to a joyous, thrilling close with newest single, “BIRDS OF A FEATHER.”
One of the most astonishing aspects of the night was Billie’s ability to make the arena feel intimate, as if she was performing a private concert for every one of the thousands in attendance. When she made eye contact, paused between songs, and shouted out how much Seattle holds a place in her heart ever since first visiting her uncle up here as a child, the intimacy only deepened.
Billie’s rise has been nothing less than meteoric, and every second of her tour de force performance at Climate Pledge serves as proof that we’ve only seen the beginning of how impossibly high her journey will reach. All the superlatives, all of the flowers, Billie deserves them all.
Review by Sattva Photo
Photos by Henry Hwu
