Billie Eilish’s voice is a dream but you can’t hear it over the screams
The pop concert experience is being ruined by selfish screamers as demonstrated at Billie Eilish’s shows in Australia.
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A couple of nights each week, the neighbourhood cats stage a fight club in my backyard and the noise is disturbing and very, very loud.
That same caterwaul has blasted at peak volume at Billie Eilish’s concerts in Australia. As it did at the Taylor Swift shows, Sabrina Carpenter sets and will likely ruin the upcoming Gracie Abrams concerts.
Scream-singing, alongside performative sobbing, has become entrenched as a feature of the pop concert and it’s annoying the hell out of ticket buyers who would like to hear the artist over the deafening din of dud notes.
At the core of Eilish’s rare talent is that unique whispery hush of a voice that packs mighty power when conveying every emotional nuance of her lyrics.
Yet it was impossible to enjoy that intimate instrument at her opening Hit Me HardandSoft concert at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
The egomania of those who would prefer to hear their own (really, really bad) voice extended to the one moment in the show when Eilish requested silence as she recorded looped layers of her voice to harmonise with herself during the delicate early hit “When The Party’s Over.”
“This doesn’t work if you’re not silent,” she told the audience. And queue that contingent of fans who just had to yell out ‘I love you Billie!”
Ever since the Beatles struggled to hear themselves sing over the deafening roar of high-pitched hysteria, so pop stars with predominantly teen girl fanbases have battled to be heard at concerts.
It’s not a new phenomenon. But there’s something beyond the excitement of seeing our favourite pop artists at play at concerts now.
Everyone wants to be the star of the show, instead of listening to the star of the show.
They compete to scream louder than the person next to them – and document it all for TikTok.
Eilish is a seasoned concert campaigner with seven tours since releasing her debut EP Don’t Smile At Me in 2017.
She knows the moments to bring the audience into the show, metaphorically handing the mic to them to take over singing Bad Guy. But they screamed, excruciatingly out-of-tune, to the lyrics to every single song.
It is accepted and encouraged behaviour to sing along with your tribe at a gig. Eilish fans, along with Swifties and the Carpenters, have turned the concert choir into a cacophonous, ear-piercing sport.
That contest extends to any interaction with the star at the show. Eilish is a generous superstar who gets up close and personal with her fans at each gig.
During the Hit Me Hard and Soft gigs, staged in the middle of the arena, she sprints around its perimeter, slapping hands and stopping at various points to step up onto the barriers for a group hug.
You can see fans trying to pull her hair, her clothes and her body like they were packing down for a scrum. It’s an assault, more than a “I touched Billie” opportunity.
The selfishness of some Eilish fans extended to their behaviour before the gig when those who had queued for hours or camped for days to score a prime position on the jampacked floor left behind piles of rubbish outside the venue.
The What Was I Made For? pop star is a climate activist who showcases sustainability programs at venues hosting her shows so no doubt would have been a little disappointed in her fans’ failure to clean up their mess.
The late great Australian promoter Michael Gudinski once took me to task for “reviewing” the audience at a gig, with my defence being the fans are as much part of the show as the performer they have come to see.
An unengaged crowd can result in a frustrating concert experience as much as a united, enthusiastic tribe can make the night transcendent.
Until they invent an autotune for screams, it would be appreciated if those who have paid hundreds of dollars to enjoy Billie Eilish live in concert shut up and stopped wasting their money on hearing themselves scream for a social media video.
Billie Eilish returns to Qudos Bank Arena on Thursday and Friday before heading to Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena next week for four sold out concerts.
Originally published as Billie Eilish’s voice is a dream but you can’t hear it over the screams
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