Billie Eilish Brought Heat, Nostalgia, And Exorcist Vibes To Her L.A. Hometown Show

Billie Eilish came house last night, and man, it was a hot one.


The 17-year-old and her striking, spooky live show touched down at The Shrine Auditorium in downtown L.A. On Tuesday (July 10), just several miles from where she grew up in Highland Park. The initial of three sold-out shows in her hometown this week, it marked a full-circle moment for Eilish, who instructed them crowd that she had seen her first concert, The Neighbourhood, at The Shrine in October 2015.


"I had never been to a show before and I was tiny as hell," she recalled. "It was the most incredible show I'd ever seen. I can't even believe that I'm here right now. So it's really special that you're all here."


It's hard to mention what's more unbelievable: that Eilish went from a first-time concertgoer to a swaggering headliner in just under four years, or that she was even performing at The Shrine in the initial place. She is, immediately considering that, one of the most in-demand new artists today, and the initial act place on Earth in this millennium to score a No. 1 album, thanks to her March debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. She might — and probably should — be filling arenas, although that's precisely what made Tuesday's show feel like a rare, lightning-in-a-bottle moment for the crowd of 6,300, who braved the venue's heat and stuffiness. (Though just barely — security guards distributed cups of water to those squished into the barricades at the face of the stage, and there were a handful of fans carried from the pit right after seemingly passing out prior to the begin of the show.)


But any time Eilish — wearing head-to-toe neon green; fingernails, hair highlights, and KT tape included — bounded onstage for a raucous initial efficiency of "bad guy," you'd have thought the thousands of fans on the floor had just woken up from a year-long coma. The next 75 minutes whizzed by just kinetically, because the crowd — teens, parents, Emma Roberts, The Office's Creed Bratton, and all — matched Eilish's oscillating energy. They swayed to "ocean eyes," headbanged to "you should visualize me in a crown," and obliged every one of Eilish's requests to scream, jump, and crouch, no matter who you were ("Just because you're VIP doesn't mean you can't indulge," she told those in the balcony).


For all the quiet moments in Eilish's music — all that spine-tingling, pop-ASMR ecstasy achieved through snaps, whispers, and tongue clicks — subtlety isn't really her thing. That rings true onstage as well, where the lights and visuals rival those of an arena act, even for the closing number, "bury a friend." As red lights flashed all around her, Eilish went full-on Exorcist, bending backwards on a tilted, stark-looking bed — like the one featured on her freaky album cover — as it rose and fell from the rafters. Just a couple of minutes prior, that bed was also the defining set piece for another song, "i love you," with Eilish explaining that she wanted to redesign the scene where she and her brother/producer Finneas wrote it. It was another nostalgic nod to her pre-fame life, because the two of those performed the haunting ballad sitting on the bed while it rose into the air plus a full moon appeared beyond them.


Eilish has recently squirmed at the thought of being "the new face of pop," although her homecoming show on Tuesday definitely fueled the notion that she's altering the genre in her own dark image. And for all of the nostalgia felt indoor Within the Shrine, there were also thrilling glimmers of what she'll have the ability to do whenever she lights up those (cool, ventilated) arenas she'll inevitably be touring soon.