Blood & flowers, as Billie Eilish excites Pittsburgh fans

PITTSBURGH — The Billie Eilish show Tuesday got bloody.

Swept up by the music early in her PPG Paints Arena concert, Eilish dropped to her tummy and did an inchworm or snake kind of crawl, dragging her knees across the stage floor before rolling over on her back. Her overall effort elicited audience cheers.

But when Eilish rose to her feet and prepared for her next song, she burst into laughter, realizing blood had begun streaming down both her knees, as several Band-aids dangled loosely from her legs. Not her first stage wound, evidently, just four nights into her tour, but the 20-year-old pop superstar soldiered on, delivering an energetic and pleasing performance for the nearly sold-out crowd.

It was a younger crowd, skewing toward female teenagers, with no predominant fashion aesthetic. They represented a mix of styles, just like the music of Eilish, who flitted Tuesday from sparsely instrumented pop to thumping electro-pop to acoustic singer-songwriter.

Eilish's two bandmates were beloved brother Finneas alternating among synthesized drums, keys, bass, electric guitar and acoustic guitar, and drummer Andrew Marshall, who's been accompanying Eilish since she was 14.

Leadoff song "Bury a Friend" set the tone for a night of thrills, with Finneas on synth drums and Marshall on regular drums pounding away in tandem, as Eilish emerged suddenly, shot skyward from a trap door.

Sporting her trademark baggy shirt with sneakers and shorts, Eilish smiled and laughed frequently, and delighted fans with her brand of stage moves laden with hops, half-kicks and prances. She glided slowly up and down a stage ramp for the alt-pop/techno-pop "DNA." There were moments with pre-recorded backing vocals or Auto-Tune-ish vocal embellishments, particularly early in the 95-minute set.

The crowd needed no coaxing other than Eilish aiming her mic at them to sing a line from "Therefore I Am" and "My Strange Addiction."

"Boy, am I happy to see you," Eilish said, encouraging spectators to let loose with their two years of pent-up pandemic energy. Masks and vaccination cards were required upon entry.

Fans obliged Eilish's wishes to jump up and down for her catchy industrial/electro-pop breakout "You Should See Me in My Crown," with the thumping beats counter-balanced by her languid singing.

"Billie Bossa Nova" was a nice change of pace, with Marshall evoking an Afro-Brazilian beat, and Finneas strumming soft, exotic notes. At one point, Eilish did a bit of a one-woman ballroom glide.

Eilish and Finneas' songwriting is their strength, evidenced on "Oxycotin," with lines like "Can't take it back once it's been set in motion/You know I love to rub it in like lotion") and "Getting Older" ("Things I once enjoyed/Just keep me employed now.")

The siblings sat on stools and strummed acoustically on the pretty and poignant "Your Power," about an emotionally abusive relationship. It showcased the ethereal side of Eilish's singing, with the Californian prefacing the song by saying, "I wish there was a song written like this when I was younger."

The next acoustic selection, "Male Fantasy," began with Eilish zoning out accidentally.

"I forgot the words literally for the first time," she said, shrugging off the miscue with an endearing laugh.

She quickly restarted and nailed the intro, prettily singing the rest of the song with her lips at times touching her microphone, as video screen closeups showed what looked like a Marilyn Monroe illustration adorning her ear monitor.

Eilish did several songs, including "Overheated" and "Bellyache," while hoisted high by a hydraulic crane slowly spinning her around at the opposite end of the arena floor.

With those streaks of blood dried on her legs, she returned to the primary stage in time for the stomping, sassy kiss-off track "Lost Cause".

Eilish expressed concern as fans on the standing-room-only, general admission floor kept pressing toward the stage. She recommended everyone on the floor take a step back, breathe deep and keep hydrated, assuring them bottled waters were headed their way. Minutes later, workers hurried to the floor in front of the stage, doling out waters to anyone in need.

Pulling out her pigtail hair ties with some difficulty and a smile, Eilish let her dark hair flow as she hit the homestretch with "When The Party's Over," the immersed-in-red-lights "All The Good Girls Go to Hell," and the delicately dream-pop "Everything I Wanted" dedicated to fans.

Someone from the crowd presented flowers to Eilish, who gratefully accepted.

Eilish hadn't been in a good mood earlier in the day, she admitted, jovially saying, "You guys completely flipped that around."

The bouncy, tempo-changing "Bad Guy" gave fans a chance to sing/shout along once more, ending with confetti showering the crowd. The confetti kept flying for the closing "Happier Than Ever."

It was a successful big venue Pittsburgh debut for the youngest artist in Grammy Award history to win the four top categories — Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year — in the same year.

Opening act Tkay Maidza handled her role well, warming up the vocal cords of fans with an engaging 40-minute set of hip-hop and dance-pop. The Zimbabwean-born Australian singer pulled off the night's biggest surprise, at least for us non-teens, with a tasty cover of Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?"

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Scott Tady is the local Entertainment Reporter for The Beaver County Times and Ellwood City Ledger. He's easy to reach at stady@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @scotttady.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Billie Eilish's Pittsburgh show got bloody, but the pop star prevailed