Billie Eilish is a restless performer. In her short but meteoric career, she’s been known to pinball around the stage while dressed in the sort of baggy outfit that facilitates free motion. She jumps. She bounces. She ducks. She kneels. A conductor of chaos, the 20-year-old sets the tone for whatever crowd she plays to. So it was worth wondering how the hyperkinetic pop phenom would approach an acoustic live show. The frenzied fans who fixate on her every move tonight prove that Eilish need only wiggle an eyebrow to elicit elation.
She returns to Europe in collaboration with Telekom Electronic Beats – and in uncharacteristically understated fashion. At the Telekom Forum in Bonn, with a capacity of just 2,000, the first night of her tour is an intimate affair. Or as intimate as you could ever hope from an artist who has sold millions of records, won big in every major Grammy category, and co-wrote an Oscar-winning James Bond theme song. The 2,000-strong crowd may as well be a private concert. As Eilish notes multiple times throughout the evening: “This is so cute!” Cute is right. There are no pyrotechnics. No visual projections. No cranes. Just Eilish and a stool with her brother-slash-collaborator Finneas by her side.
