Rock and reckless: Billie Elish is a stage animal
In the past he said he hated life on tour: «It’s a little crazy thing. It is unnatural. It’s like living five different lives at the same time ». Its ailments vented them last year also in one of the songs of the album “Hit Me Hard and Soft”, which is now taking on tour. In “Skinny”, the song that opens the album, partly focused on its difficult relationship with fame and celebrity, Billie Eilish sings: “When I Step Off the Stage, I’m a Bird in Cage, I’m Dog in Dog Pound”, “When I get off the stage, I am a bird in a cage, a dog in a kennel”. After all, he was only 17 when the exploit with “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?” He threw her to an exhibition and a visibility that little suited to a teenager, torn away from his daily lives. Today Billie Eilish seems to have made peace with that aspect of his profession. On the stages it seems to have found its natural habitat: rock and reckless, the voice of “Bad Guy” does not spare. And it enhances the masses in front of which it performs. The tour linked to the album “Hit Me Hard and Soft” left last week from Stockholm, Sweden: the new Leg will hold the US singer -songwriter on the stages of the main European arenas until the end of July. It will also pass through Italy: on June 8th he will perform at the Unipol Arena in Bologna. Tickets gone Sold out in three minutesas told by the fans, last May, over a year in advance.
The first European tour after six years
Not only the date of Bologna, lBefore the pop star in our country in six years, as many as they have gone from the stage to Milan of the “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?”in the summer of 2019. The entire European tour recorded the sold out: “Things are going badly in the United States, right now. So it’s nice to be elsewhere. Six years have passed since the last European tour, it is a long time. I have been on tour in Europe since I was 15 years old and so I feel very close to you, I feel so many emotions and many memories when I come here»Says Billie Eilish to fans from the arenas stages. Which are all very crowded. Fans, as per practice in these cases, meet outside the Palasport already days before the dates, equipped with curtains and so on. Then at the opening of the gates the race to conquer the best places under the stage, attached to the barriers, starts.
The 360 degree stage
With this new show series, the pop star tried to guarantee all spectators as possible visibility: he chose to perform on a stage with a 360 degree view, so that thanks to the “immersive” scenography anyone can enjoy the show in its entirety regardless of where it is sitting. Also because in the construction of the show he did not spare himself. The introduction of the show is among the most spectacular in recent years: Billie Eilish presents himself on the scene closed in a large cube suspended in the air, hanging on the ceiling of the Palasport, which “lands” on the notes of “The Greatest” on stage. “Chihiro”, “Lunch” and “NDA” give the party, which then continues with the hits of “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?” And “Happier Than Ever”: from “When the Party’s Over” to “Ilomilo”, passing through “Bad Guy”, “Bury a friend”, “Everything I Wanted” and the same “Happier Than Ever”. The show lasts 95 minutes, just over an hour and a half: short but intense, it would be said.
A training novel
Eilish retraces what has been his career to date and the songs ideally represent the pages of his training novel: the debut with “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?”, The consecration with “Happier Than Ever”, the maturity with “Hit Me Hard and Soft”. Musically, he puts everything in place: a moment before gently plays an acoustic guitar on the notes of “TV”, a moment later organizes a rave on the notes of “Bury a friend” and “Guess”. And then flames, geyser, plays of light. Another of the most anticipated passages, after the spectacular Intro, arrives with “When the Party’s Over”: the singer -songwriter lie on the back on the stage, asks the fans to remain completely silent and interprets the song taken from the debut album in a poignant way.
Waiting for it in Bologna there will be 15 thousand fans. Tickets are nowhere to be found. The hope, for those who have not managed to buy them, is that they do not pass another six years before Billie returns to sing in Italy.
