Fresh from her headline set at the Reading and Leeds festival on the weekend, Billie Eilish played a very small intimate show at the Electric Ballroom in Camden last night (August 29).
The show was packed with special guests and a very excited crowd as Eilish herself had to stop the show four times and ask the crowd to calm down.
Amongst the guests was London-based rapper, singer and producer Labrinth who came out to perform their collaborative track, ‘Never Felt So Alone’ from Labrinth’s album Ends & Begins, released earlier this year.
Eilish wasn’t done with special guest appearances however as super group Boygenius took to the stage after wowing audiences at Gunnersbury Park just over a week ago (August 20) to perform ‘When the Party’s Over’, a single from Eilish’s first album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Another angle of boygenius performing When The Party’s Over with Billie Eilish at her show tonight!! pic.twitter.com/v3vO7CLSd3
— phoebe on tour (@bridgersontour) August 29, 2023
Her set comprised of huge fan-favourite singles such as ‘Bad Guy’ and ‘Happier Than Ever’ but she also performed rarities for the crowd such as ‘My Boy’ and ‘Wish You Were Gay’.
It wasn’t such a straight forward show however, as three songs into her set she stopped mid-performance during ‘Therefore I Am’ two times in order to encourage the crowd to check on the crowd amid crowd crushing, urging security to give out water to the crowd. “Can we get some water for these folks? Like where is security? Am I security now?” she frustratingly exclaimed to the audience.
The show was marred with crowd and security concerns from Eilish as she repeatedly addressed her frustration to the crowd by saying: “I haven’t played a small venue in literally six years. I’ve forgotten how to do this… I’m having an anxiety attack right now,” later following this up by adding “This felt like a good idea… Once. You guys look like you’re gonna die, take a step back.”
Her frustrations with security did not stop there as later on in the set she was still not happy as she addressed the crowd once more: “No one is answering me,”. She later had a break in the set to allow security to give out water and to provide a break for the excitable crowd, saying to the crowd: “Who needs an inhaler? I feel like I’m babysitting. Do you feel ok for me to keep going?”.
The intimate show was a surprise one that was only announced 3 days prior, in between her headlining sets at Reading and Leeds festival. Unsurprisingly, tickets for the show sold out instantly and fans were clearly fanatic about seeing a megastar such Billie Eilish at such a small venue.
