I remember sitting at the dinner table on my birthday and opening the present from my older sister: two Billie Eilish concert tickets for her “WHERE DO WE GO” show in March of 2020. 

Months pass and 2020 rolls around. Before I know it the tour is canceled and the money is sent back to my sister’s account. Fast forward two years and Billie announces she will be going on tour again for her new album “Happier Than Ever”. Immediately, my mom bought me and my sisters tickets for her Buffalo show. 

February twelfth was the night of the concert. My sisters and I walked to the Keybank Center across the street and got in line about ten minutes before the doors opened. We were all beyond excited as we froze in line. The moment we have been waiting close to three years for was finally here; it seemed surreal. 

Once inside the venue, we got to our seats that were directly in front of her second stage, parallel from her main stage.

The view was great: we could see both stages clearly and were centered behind the soundboard. My anticipation for the show grew as we waited. 

The original opener, WILLOW, had canceled for the first few tour dates. Thankfully, Dora Jar performed instead. Neither I nor my sisters had heard of her music before this night. Overall I think that her music was alright. Some songs came across better live than others but I am interested to discover more of her music. 

Set List:

1. Quiver
2. Look Back
3. Multiply
4. Polly 
5. Lagoon

Eventually, around nine pm, Billie came on stage. Her opening was outstanding, lights slowly flashing as they sped up, reminding me of an alien abduction with the sound effects. Everyone was screaming, full of energy; at one point she even mentioned how loud the crowd was that night.

One thing that I will always remember about this concert was the lights. The light production was absolutely amazing. I think that each and every one of her songs was performed really well with the different flashing and colors. Clearly, a lot of thought went into the different effects and it was truly an unforgettable experience. 

During the song “GOLDWING” the whole arena lit up a yellow-golden color, slowly getting brighter and brighter as the show went. It looked like fireworks were flashing on the screens behind her.

At one point in the show during her performance of “lovely” a blue light beam was running up and down the audience, shining right in your eyes as it passed over you. When it wasn’t shining in your eyes it was really cool to watch as different parts of the crowd lit up different colors. 

My favorite performance was probably “Oxytocin” with the snippet of “copycat” for the pure fact of the light production. The amount of flashing red and light beams was crazy and I have never seen anything like it before. It was definitely an experience you had to be there for; not even the videos could top how incredible it was. The switch between “Oxytocin” leading into “copycat” was amazing as well.

The red and white light beams stayed but the TVs switched to a red blosh logo glitching across the screen as she sang. I liked this a lot:  it incorporated her “old trademark” with a song in an old album incorporating aspects that would’ve been in her concerts a year prior.  

Her setlist was also great. The songs were split up well with the different slow songs together and the more upbeat songs together. There was a good mix of songs seeing as her last tour got canceled. Most, about half I would say, were from the Happier Than Ever album, but the other half were from other various albums, as well as singles. It somewhat made up for the songs she was unable to perform live last year and for the people unable to go to that tour. 

Billie’s second stage was closer to me than her main stage. During a shortened part of  “Not My Responsibility”, she switched to the second stage and got into a crane. She started with the song “OverHeated” and continued to perform four other songs on that stage. 

As she was in the crane it rotated from left to right over the crowd. When the crane was extended directly in front of me she was probably close to six feet in front of me, which was absolutely amazing to experience. I loved this idea, giving more of an experience to people on both sides of the arena. 

Billie is a very active performer, running across the stage and talking to her audience a lot. When she was on the crane she didn’t do any of this, though I didn’t see it as a big deal seeing as it was only a couple of songs. 

The overall concert experience was very positive. There were multiple times Billie would stop the show, asking her audience how they were. She told everyone at one point to take a drink of water and handed out free water to people in the pit. She would tell everyone in the pit to take a few steps back, getting rid of the overcrowding. 

While performing Billie encouraged everyone to be there in the moment. She would say how she could see every single person, and see every person’s face. She would say “just be right here and have some fun, okay? I love you so much!” This is something that my sisters and I had never experienced at a concert before; I imagine it made a lot of people feel very safe and seen by the performer. 

Set List:

1. bury a friend
2. I Didn’t Change My Number
3. NDA
4. Therefore I Am
5. my strange addiction
6. idontwannabeyouanymore
7. lovely
8. you should see me in a crown
9. Billie Bossa Nova
10. GOLDWING
11. Halley’s Comet
12. Oxytocin (with copycat snippet)
13. ilomilo
14. Your Power (with FINNEAS)
15. Male Fantasy
16. Not My Responsibility (shortened)
17. OverHeated
18. bellyache (shortened)
19. ocean eyes (shortened)
20. Bored (shortened)
21. Getting Older
22. Lost Cause
23. when the party’s over
24. all the good girls go to hell
25. everything i wanted
26. bad guy
27. Happier Than Ever