Concert Reviews

From heartbreaking lyrics via “Skinny” and “TV” to tracks with a more dramatic, edge-of-your-seat feel like “The Diner” and “bury a friend,” Eilish seamlessly transitioned from one energy level to the next.

Billie Eilish knows exactly who she is and what she was made for.

At 22, Eilish, who first started recording songs with her brother Finneas at the age of 13, has come a long way in finding herself. Her performance for a sold-out crowd at TD Garden in Boston on Friday night made that all too clear.

The show fully lived up to the title of both the tour and recent album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” with Eilish smoothly shifting from delicate, haunting ballads about love and growing up to moody, fiery songs that packed a punch and had the whole arena jumping.

The singer-songwriter’s true power comes from her voice and breath control. It’s what makes her performances so mesmerizing and leaves fans hanging on every note.

Despite the name of the tour, the show featured songs from all three of her studio albums, as well as songs from other projects like the Oscar-winning “What Was I Made For?” from the 2023 “Barbie” film.

From heartbreaking lyrics via “Skinny” and “TV” to tracks with a more dramatic, edge-of-your-seat feel like “The Diner” and “bury a friend,” Eilish seamlessly transitioned from one energy level to the next.

Production wise, she pulled out all the stops from moody blue lights and fog to flashing colors and pyrotechnics that lit up the arena.

The concert felt similar to a sporting event with a majority of her fans donning some of her signature looks including jerseys, oversized T-shirts, bandanas, and hats.

Eilish also commanded the large rectangular stage in the center of the arena – much like her own version of a football field – hyping up fans at every turn and running laps throughout the night.

The tour marks her first time on the road without her brother, who co-wrote and produced the latest album. Though he will join her for a few dates as his schedule allows, Finneas will spend most of the next several months promoting his latest solo record, “For Cryin’ Out Loud!” (His tour includes a stop in Boston at MGM Music Hall at Fenway on Feb. 21.)

The stage at TD Garden featured two orchestra-like pits where a few band members positioned themselves for most of the show. A standing general admission crowd also surrounded the stage.

Eilish used the full area throughout her performance, sprinting from one end to the other and weaving in and out of the pits. She didn’t always leave fans wondering where she was, as she often brought a camera with her and provided close-ups of her face, as well as of fans throughout the crowd and areas beneath the floor.

The stage also featured a large cage-like box, which moved up and out of sight and back down throughout the night as needed. At times, graphics would play on the box much like a TV screen. When the cage disappeared, there was also a platform, which Eilish climbed onto and suspended into the air for songs like “The Greatest.”

Pop rock duo Nat & Alex Wolff, known perhaps especially to millennials as the stars of the Nickelodeon television show “The Naked Brothers Band,” opened for Eilish. They performed songs including “Lucky You,” “Backup Plan,” and “Soft Kissing Hour.”

The latter song was released the same day as the Boston show and was produced by and featured vocals from none other than Eilish herself.

“God, we’re so lucky to be opening for the greatest artist of our generation,” Nat Wolff told a roughly half-filled TD Garden.

Over the course of a roughly 45-minute set, the brothers energized fans in anticipation for Eilish in a way that all openers aspire to do. Not only did they display talent in their range of vocals and use of multiple instruments, but they also worked the arena. From Nat climbing into the crowd around the stage and working the pit to the brothers calling for phone flashlights up, it was a lively and interactive opening act that left TD Garden cheering.

Eilish appeared on stage just over an hour after the Wolff brothers finished, which is about 20 minutes later than she was expected. Though the setlist has remained the same from show to show so far, she cut “you should see me in a crown” for this show. It’s not clear whether the late start led to that decision, but she still performed for roughly an hour and 40 minutes.

About six songs in, Eilish sat crosslegged at center stage, looked out at the arena full of screaming fans, and made the rare and well, one can imagine, difficult request for the audience to go absolutely silent for a moment.

As videos on TikTok have shown, Eilish has been doing this on shows throughout the tour, asking the crowd to go completely quiet for about a minute so that she can record live looped vocal layers.

Despite a few inevitable shrieks of love, fans quieted each other down, so Eilish could successfully record a cappella layers as she filled the arena with her 2018 single, “when the party’s over.”

The ability to command an arena like that – shifting from getting the whole arena to its feet, fans cheering at their loudest, to absolute silence – proved her power.

Eilish and Boston might just be “Birds of a Feather,” after all.

“You guys have always been [expletive] awesome,” she told TD Garden, saying she thinks the first time she played in Boston was around the age of 15.

“For years,” when people would ask Eilish what her favorite places to play are, “I would always say Boston. And some other places, but you were always up there, and I just love you,” she said. “So, thank you for keeping up that reputation.”

Setlist for Billie Eilish at TD Garden, Boston, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024

• Chihiro
• Lunch
• NDA
• Therefore I Am
• Wildflower
• when the party’s over (featuring live looped vocal layers)
• The Diner
• ilomilo
• bad guy
• The Greatest
• Male Fantasy
• Skinny
• TV
• Bittersuite (just a snippet played from a tape)
• bury a friend
• Oxytocin
• Guess (Charli XCX remix cover) (B stage)
• everything I wanted (B stage)
• Blue (played from tape as Eilish ran through crowd)
• lovely/idon’twannabeyouanymore/ocean eyes
• L’amour De Ma Vie (Over Now extended edit)
• What Was I Made For?
• Happier Than Ever
• Birds of a Feather

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