There was no doubt that Billie Eilish’s Where Do We Go? live stream would be a spectacle. The 18-year-old megastar has not only ripped up pop’s rule book to become one of the world’s most exciting stars, but aesthetically she has built a dark and twisted universe that surrounds her macabre, delicate and haunting sonic sandpit.
Such worldbuilding leaves her particularly suited for 2020 and the new necessity for digital concerts. With COVID-19 still preventing much of the world from enjoying the electric buzz of live music in person, artists have been experimenting with various forms of digital or constructed live performances, be it through Zoom, or while observing social distancing, forming bubbles with troupes of dancers and musicians, or through advanced digital trickery.
Eilish’s live stream, an adapted version of her Where Do We Go? World Tour that was meant to be trotting the globe throughout 2020, utilised the latter, elevating her songs with XR technology, projections, lighting, 3D-rendered environments and nifty camera work. The result was a truly immersive, innovative and invigorating live show that offered up a thrilling new live music experience.
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Opening the show with “Bury A Friend”, Eilish, joined on stage by her brother Finneas and drummer Andrew Marshall, was bathed in red light that pulsed black with the beat. Segueing into the claustrophobic “You Should See Me In A Crown” was when the technological elements of the show came to life as a giant 3D arachnid, a nod to the song’s music video, stalked the singer, its legs seemingly stamping on the stage.
There were other mind-blowing mesmerising digital sets, too: for “ilomilo”, a set highlight,the singer was transported to the dark depths of the sea. Sat on the floor, Eilish was surrounded by computer generated sharks and underwater foliage, the large shadow of a sea monster lurking in the background that, at the end of the song, gobbled up singer and stage whole. For “My Future”, the stage morphed into an animated forest.
These effects weren’t overdone, though. On “Xanny”, Eilish appeared from a screen filled with smoke sitting on a bench where she stayed for most of the performance, while during “Ocean Eyes” the background became waves, which washed the singer in a turquoise light. She also delivered what might be some of her best live vocals ever committed to film at the end of that song.
The whole show exemplified what an incredible singer Eilish is. She sounds great on the record, yes, but live her voice is even more wrought with emotion and textured than on her stylised studio recordings. During her rendition of No Time To Die, her understated Bond theme, she built tension before unleashing a powerful vocal belt.t
Throughout the show, Eilish also encouraged viewers in America to go out and vote, dubbing Donald Trump “the worst”. For “All The Good Girls Go To Hell”, images of pollution, protest and the environmental effects of climate change were displayed in a dystopian video installation, which ended with the words “NO MUSIC ON A DEAD PLANET”. “We gotta do something,” Eilish said after encouraging young people to get out and vote. “People are dying. The world is dying.”
Artists looking to reduce their carbon footprint might see these sorts of digital live streams as an alternative to touring, and perhaps when technology like VR and XR progresses further it might actually be viable. But as much as watching this hour-long live-stream was exhilarating (I watched three times – it’s that good), it really isn’t the same as being there to experience it live.
Eilish is a magnetic performer, even without a wave of energy from the crowd to feed off. She put on an energetic and dynamic show, that pushed the boundaries technologically. However, you could feel that performing to a small crew and a bunch of cameras wasn’t quite the same for her as it would have been in front of her fans.
“During quarantine I’ve realised that being on stage is the place where I belong,” she said before launching into her final song, “Bad Guy”. “If we vote the orange man out maybe we’ll be able to see each other again.” Until that time, thank goodness for an artist like Eilish, who has the vision and talent to pull off something as breathtaking as this live stream.
