A lot has happened since we first reviewed a 16-year-old Billie Eilish during a small club show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco way back in 2018.
She’s won a boatload of Grammys, Oscars and other awards, sold zillions of records, garnered tens of millions of fans and, in general, lived up to our initial reaction to that early San Francisco show that the young pop vocalist could well become “the next big thing.” (Yes, we got that prediction right. So, let’s just focus on that one instead of the much longer list of the ones we’ve got wrong.)
And Billie Eilish has certainly done it her way, managing to become one of the biggest stars in the pop music universe without sacrificing an ounce of her artistic integrity or conforming to ill-fitting expectations from the entertainment industry.
The person who showed up to play the first of two very sold-out shows at the SAP Center in San Jose on Tuesday (Dec. 10) was still the same person who delighted a few hundred fans at the Great American Music Hall some six years ago.
There were no choreographed dance routines or costume changes, like you would see at gigs from pretty much all of Eilish’s pop music contemporaries. She just showed up in a Polo Sport shirt, baggy shorts, bunched up white gym socks, black high-tops and — exhibiting incredibly good fashion sense — the classic green-and-yellow A’s cap (worn backwards), and proceeded to charm the crowd with plenty of personality and solid versions of nearly two-dozen songs.
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She skipped about the stage when she felt the urge, then laid down on the floor and closed her eyes when the mood called for it. She touched hands and goofed around with a handheld camera. Mostly, she had a blast. And the fun was contagious.
The 17,000 fans in attendance — representing the largest concert crowd we’ve seen at SAP Center in many a moon — were in the groove and cheering on the pop star (who really comes across more like a friend than an idol) from start to finish during the 100-minute-plus show. Eilish was also set to perform at the same venue on Wednesday night.
Billie Eilish performs at SAP Center in San Jose on Dec. 10, 2024. (Credit: Henry Hwu / @henryhwu, courtesy of High Rise PR)
Performing in a 360-degree “in the round” setting — where seats are sold on all sides of the stage, allowing for far more tickets to be sold than a normal arena set-up — Eilish opened the show right around 8:40 p.m. by running through “Chihiro” and “Lunch” from the tour’s namesake album, this year’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft.”
She sounded great as she made her way about the long rectangular stage, which ran the same direction as the ice would at San Jose Sharks games. There were two cut-out areas of the stage where Eilish’s backing band — which, for the first time on this tour, does not include her brother and collaborator Finneas — huddled.
Otherwise the stage was basically just a flat, unobstructed service that served as Eilish’s own musical playground. The special effects consisted of a platform that occasionally lifted the star into the air as well as overhead video screens and an absolute barrage of lighting effects.
Yet, the best moments of the show came when the flashing lights and pulsating lasers were at rest, allowing the fans a less complicated path to connect with the star of the show.
Billie Eilish in concert at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (Photo by Henry Hwu / @henryhwu)
The moments that will likely be remembered the most vividly happened when Eilish sat at the edge of the stage and greeted fans during the tender “What Was I Made For?”; asked fans to momentarily be quiet — and the house of 17,000 went completely silent — so that she could record a live vocal loop for “When the Party’s Over”; and expressed her commitment to her fanbase with such strong proclamations as “I will always be here for you and stand up for you and fight for you.”
The setlist was a really nice mix of material from the singer’s three albums, all of which sonically fit together like pieces of one engaging sonic puzzle. “Hit Me Hard and Soft” got the lion’s share, of course, with eight numbers, while the 2019 debut “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (still our favorite Eilish offering) placed five tunes and 2021’s “Happier Than Ever” had a half dozen in the mix.
All the more intimate moments, where Eilish slowed things down and firmly connected with the crowd, set things up quite nicely for the production-heavy closing spectacle, which really began with the singer’s big rock star spotlight — playing an electric guitar while down on her knees as bursts of fire shot into the air during “Happier Than Ever” — and continued right into the confetti-rich closer of “Birds of a Feather.”
In all, it was an even more satisfying concert experience than what occurred during the last time we reviewed Eilish — back in 2022 concert at the Chase Center in San Francisco — firmly underscoring that this young star continues to get better in the live arena.
And she continues to do it her own way.
It will be fascinating to see where she goes from here.
Billie Eilish in concert at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (Photo by Henry Hwu / @henryhwu)
Billie Eilish setlist (based on our notes and information from setlist.fm)
1. “CHIHIRO”
2. “LUNCH”
3. “NDA”
4. “Therefore I Am”
5. “WILDFLOWER”
6. “when the party’s over”
7. “THE DINER”
8. “ilomilo”
9. “bad guy”
10. “my future”
11. “THE GREATEST”
12. “Your Power”
13. “SKINNY”
14. “TV”
15. “bury a friend”
16. “Oxytocin”
17. “Guess”
18. “everything i wanted”
19. “lovely”/”ocean eyes”
20. “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE”
21. “What Was I Made For?”
22. “Happier Than Ever”
23. “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”
Billie Eilish in concert at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (Photo by Henry Hwu / @henryhwu)
Billie Eilish in concert at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (Photo by Henry Hwu / @henryhwu)
