On Wednesday, Nov. 13, after one broken-down train and two hour Uber ride, my sister and I made it to Chicago’s United Center for Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour. I had begun listening to Eilish in my middle school years and first heard her and Finneas live in 2021 at the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City (which was wonderful), so I was particularly excited for this show. Was it worth the four-hour journey, though? Let’s talk about it.
The show began with a white cube of screens in the center of the stage, which faced all four sides of the arena. The stage looked like the figure ‘8’ or a ‘B’ depending on your own judgment, with the gaps serving as spaces for the members of Eilish’s band. An instrumental of her song “THE GREATEST” boomed from speakers are strobe lights flicked around the United Center. “THE GREATEST” is the 6th track on Eilish’s 2024 album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. The singer herself arrived standing atop the cube, in a red oversized jersey with the number ‘80’ printed on the front and back and baggy black basketball shorts. Eilish also sported some clear-rimmed eye glasses. Listeners in the audience screamed and cheered as the band began to transition into the intro for the 3rd track on the album, titled “CHIHIRO.” The arena was filled with blue as the lights changed color.
The show continued according to its regularly scheduled track listing until about twenty-eight minutes in, when she started her soft, somber tune from 2018, “when the party’s over.” Eilish explained to the audience that she required silence for the next segment of her performance as she would be looping and layering her harmonies for the song, recording them live. Right as she finished recording her final harmony, however, a man in the audience cried, “I love you!” prompting the rest of the crowd to follow and begin cheering. It turns out, this cheer came prematurely as Eilish’s expectation was that the audience remained quiet until her singing the words, “Don’t you know I’m no good for you.”
Since the shouting did not affect the music at all because she had finished recording her harmonies, there did not seem to be an issue. As the show went on, though, I began to notice a dip in energy and general vibe in both the performers and viewers. Logging onto TikTok during our car ride back to campus, I realized that “Chicago Night 1” had become notorious for hosting a horrible audience. Eilish herself pointed out at her show in Chicago the following night that we were the only audience on her tour that was not able to keep quiet during that portion of the performance (and for the record, I thought her practically shaming everyone in attendance that night was kind of comical and unnecessary).
Some people at the show defended “The Man Who Yelled” in the comments of these TikTok by claiming that Eilish herself told the crowd to be silent for 30 seconds (which we were) when she really wanted one minute of silence. Others expressed their gratitude that they went Night 2 and not the first night, stating the energy was far better. Eilish later explained why she was off during the first performance in Chicago as she (conveniently) began to feel ill in the middle of the show.
Overall, I had a splendid time despite the tumultuous adventure required to make it to the arena on a Wednesday night as well as the controversy that stormed social media over my show. Chicago Night 1, if its any consolation, I had a lot of fun.
