Venue: National Stadium Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date: 18th August 2022
Promoter: Live Nation Malaysia
Review by: Jason Lim
Special Thanks: The PR Worldwide and Live Nation Malaysia teams
Billie Eilish is a phenomenon. A child of the millennium (born 2001), product of home-schooling, propelled by SoundCloud (where she and songwriter brother first uploaded their song “Ocean Eyes”) and finally exploding properly into the scene in 2019 (with her debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?) – only to be locked down by a global epidemic for what would ostensibly be the first two crucial years of her meteoric career.
Even so, she kept plenty busy, recording and releasing a second studio album, chart-topping new singles and a collaboration (with Rosalia), whilst releasing a hit Bond theme song (which won an Academy award, making her the first person born in the 21st century to do so) as well as a feature on Apple TV, amid racking up multiple brand endorsements and more importantly; continuing to connect with her fans around the world through it all, throwing in occasional intimate home concerts and IG live jam sessions.
So when the world finally reopened this year, it is no exaggeration to say Ms. Eilish was welcome or some may say overdue on every stage from the Coachella to Philippines – where she kicked off the Asian leg of her World Tour. Finneas posted on IG saying her Seoul gig was only her first ever stadium gig which is mind-boggling given the exposure this girl has been getting.
Guess that makes Billie’s stop at Bukit Jalil National Stadium, Kuala Lumpur her second ever stadium gig. Quite an honour, and being her second concert in South East Asia after Manila, Malaysian fans got the chance to catch her even before Singapore and Bangkok. As if it wasn’t already enough of a treat having a world famous mega star gracing home turf again after three (or was it just two?) long Covid years. And who can remember the last big international act that stopped over in Kuala Lumpur even pre-2020?
Fans reportedly gathered before dawn in a bid to secure the best positions in the standing areas. Shortly after 8.30pm, the gig opened with an electric guitar rendition of “Negaraku” by local shredder Muzza (IG @muzza_himself), fitting given that August is the month Malaysia celebrates its independence.
After that, without much fuss, the lights went down and the show proper kicked off with Billie, Finneas and drummer Andrew Marshall taking through a barrage of more than 20 almost non-stop songs in the next 90 minutes.
For the less familiar, it is probably worth saying at this stage that Billie Eilish songs are great on moody headphone or car stereo listening sprees but don’t quite have the same effect live on big stages. Except for live performances at late night shows or awards ceremonies, Billie’s concert videos on YouTube recordings (even the professional ones) tend to be inferior to the album versions – mainly due to the virtuoso audio engineering work done by Finneas on the albums that is hard to recreate live.
Not that her fans really noticed or cared for any of this. For the hardcore Billie Eilish fans, they were happier than ever just seeing their favourite emo-repeat stream songs sung live on stage for the first time. For many young fans it was very likely their first gig ever. So sound/song audio issues aside, Billie Eilish’s stage performance was still a class of its own. It helps to have the energy of a 20 year old, prancing and bouncing along the walkway cutting through the standing area of the stadium repeatedly.
The stadium was rocking from the get-go with beat-heavy tracks like “bury a friend”, “NDA”, and “Therefore I Am”. Billie’s trademark airy soft vocals carried through the stadium well amid the bass and were only muffled out occasionally by the loud screams of her enthusiastic fans, one of whom brought along a crown to wave at her from the front row as she sang “you should see me in a crown”.
It was pretty high-energy through most of the set, with the famously crowd-conscious singer slowing things down every now and then to tell the audience to breathe, check in on each other and drink water cartons passed around by security – only to ramp up the frenzy again and coerce everyone from the standing area to the back seats to jump and go crazy on tracks like “Oxytoxin”.
As fun and infectious as the faster pace songs were, it was the toned down segments where the songstress’s live experience truly excelled, like in the stripped down acoustic pieces she played and sang alongside Finneas on “i love you”, “Your Power” and “The 30th”. The latter being a new track (dedicated to a friend) from her most recent EP Guitar Songs and according to Billie, this was only the third time she’s performed this live. The way the crowd sang along to its poignant lyrics, you wouldn’t have guessed that the song was released barely a month ago.
Without wasting time on any outfit changes in between songs, Billie powered through and treated fans to some cool video backdrops on “Ocean Eyes”, environmental messages before the track “Everything I Wanted”, a childhood montage from Billie’s family albums on the song “Getting Older”, and a surprise blast of paper confetti over the audience after her hit track “Bad Guy”.
Billie closed the night with “Happier Than Ever”, finishing off on a powerful pounding crescendo – that didn’t really leave the need for an encore (although, personally I would’ve loved it if she sang “No Time to Die”).
Before her last song, Billie told the audience that she thought this was already one of her best shows and she was not expecting this kind of energy. She was right, the Malaysian crowd (and some foreign fans) were really on top form in terms of vibe and spirit. Though admittedly not a completely sold-out show and large sections of the stadium were deliberately not opened, possibly due to the fact that we are still in the midst of a pandemic (and also, y’know inflation) – the local concert-going scene is truly well and alive after the long hiatus. Definitely ready for more big acts to come by our shores soon.