Billie Eilish Concert at Granada Theater in
Dallas Texas
By Marco A. Ayllon B.
Nautilus Entertainment News
Dallas TX, November 13, 2018
Yes, Billie Eilish belongs to the Dallas city teenagers. Today, on November 13, 2018, we went to a “Billie Eilish” concert with my daughter Kellsey (15) and my son Hallsten (9) and their group of friends. Everybody had a hard time purchasing those tickets together months in advance. A lot of followers were disappointed in Dallas and as well as in other cities. All tickets were bought up by application software bots in less than a second.
True fans were unable to buy tickets despite their long wait until the last minute when all ticketing web sites started selling tickets for the Billie Eilish concert. Now those tickets are being resold at 10 times the original cost on StubHub. Just wanted to surprise my daughter and son for another city, and I could not purchase using popular sites. On Billie Eilish’s Twitter account, she mentioned: “We just added a new show in Atlanta and Austin. Sign up for early access to my tickets.”
In Dallas, at one of the best High Schools of United States called “Townview High school of Health Professions,” many students from the School of Health were disappointed after finding out how bots disable their dreams to purchase a concert ticket.
It makes sense that Eilish appeals to teenage girls, considering she is one herself. At the tender yet mighty age of 16, her youth is less betrayed by her lyrical content, swelling production, and commanding energy than by the fans who turn out in droves, decked out in identical neon merchandise with phones poised at the ready.
Eilish emerges as a hooded figure on top of a huge lighted spider, and a straight blue hair color, and a landscape of sound, fog, and flashing lights immersing the audience in her Billie’s Eilish world. Pulsing colors and almost theatrical production introduce her to the tune of “my boy.” She spins across stage, filling the lofted venue with a bounding energy. Repeatedly throughout the show, she commands the audience to “fucking JUMP,” and at her plea they of course do, to songs like “bellyache” and “&burn.”
Kellsey and brother, Hallsten Ayllon, chanted and jumped along their friends on this special Billie Eilish concert. Kellsey mentioned: “We saw Billie happy and energetic, however I noticed she did not sing one of her unreleased songs.” Hallsten said, “Today is my first concert, and Billie performed excellent. I had a good time at Granada Theater in Dallas. I had just come from a Basketball game against Lake Highlands preparatory in Dallas, and my team played a good game. Unfortunately, we lost today, but coming to this concert changed my spirit.”
Billie addressed the room with a magnetism belonging to the kind of cool girl who is maybe too scary to approach, but when you get to know her, you’re relieved she’s equally as chaotic, insecure, cheery, high-spirited, curious, etc. You relish when she lets you in on her darker undersides, her secret vengeances, and her vulnerabilities.
The blue–haired chick sparkled in the colorful lights with an urgent energy that’s just as quickly offset when she cracks up at the absurdity of it all. In the space between two songs, the crowd cheering at blood–curdling pitches, Eilish laughs and exclaims, “Damn, whatchall want!” and the audience laughs loudly, along with her.
“If you hate yourself, this song is for you,” Billie announces as the piano picks up the opening chords of “idontwannabeyouanymore.” Exclamations of concert-goers could be heard, “OMG so me!” weaving their way into the sound waves. The lyrics are an ode to the self–deprecation of female adolescence, rendered forgivingly.
She confronts the heartbreak of self–love with compassion and unflinching honesty: “Don't be that way/Fall apart twice a day/I just wish you could feel what you say.” Eilish laments being “told a tight dress is what makes you a whore” in her all black with white letters in athletic ensemble of a Balenciaga sweatshirt and black-colored sweat pants. In contrast, the darkly anthemic “you should see me in a crown” parades her determination and confidence with an electric-blue colored Crown given to her onstage by Hallsten Ayllon. Billie's self–assuredness is less a shield and more a complement to the kinks in her armor.
More recent releases arrange loneliness as a spectrum of personal fictions: “You can pretend you don't miss me/You can pretend you don't care,” she repeats in “bitches broken hearts.” Inverting the perspective, she admits “I could lie, say I like it like that, like it like that” in “when the party’s over.” In a room full of people, these kinds of desolate confessions—concessions to desolation—have a way of bringing people together.
Billie Eilish charges the live production to offset the emotional and intense faculty of her music.
Later, she catches everyone off guard with a trap remix of the Mii Plaza song to the delight of the audience. She jumped up and down to the rhythm of the music and danced with passion. She reminds us that there is joy and cleansing in being present with each other. Dancing and letting go, laughing at life’s absurdities—such as when an audience member presented her a flower bouquet, Billie joyfully embraced the roses to her heart and bashfully said, “Aw, my heart is beating so fast!”
In many ways, Billie Eilish can be seen as a product of a digitally native generation—one that confronts existential crises by sharing memes and simultaneously concerns itself, necessarily, with the future of a world in crisis. She is empowered to contend with the full range of complexity and emotion of personhood, of femininity, and of becoming. To this end, she belongs to her following as much as they belong to her, her success joining with the multi–dimensional grasp on the world her audience achieves.
Hallsten alleged, “I know all of Billie Eilish’s songs and today I enjoyed her music and her concert. At 9 years old, I’m learning what it means to become a teenager and be able to make big decisions when I feel not nearly as far away from becoming a teenager as I thought I would be.”
Kellsey retorted, “Coming to Billie’s concert with my family was so special to me. Today I screamed, and I sung all of Billie Eilish’s songs. Being still 15 is exhausting because of my busy schedule. Between my soccer games and practices and challenging school work, I had made an effort to come! As students, we feel drained and exhausted, and on weekends we sometime become too absorbed by our routines, and I don’t try to let them consume me (sometimes they still do).
Sometimes, we as teenagers get lonely, withdrawn, and insecure. Most of the time, I want to ignite the fire in my veins rather than diffuse it by jumping along Billie Eilish’s melodies, to the flashing lights and explosive percussion and, yes, to try to continue to stay ahead of those girls my age.”
Rounding off her concert hour, Eilish enchants the audience in the encore with “ocean eyes,” a defusal of heartache and a lesson in indulging in all of your stomach–in–knots feelings at once. Her final song is the detonating “COPYCAT,” and then she takes her bows, exiting to a recording of the theme song from The Office. Billie Eilish’s ability to mix humor with self–deprecation, confidence with confession, and a big Tarantula spider with heartache and remorse, make her a powerhouse. She is wise, not in spite of her years, but in light of them. MAAB © 2018
