Billie Eilish hits Hard and Soft, and brother Finneas surprises Prudential Center: Review

Billie Eilish is young, talented and she has a pretty good poker face, too.

Eilish noted from the stage of her Wednesday, Oct. 9 Prudential Center in Newark show that her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour was first one without brother and collaborator Finneas O'Connell.

“It's my first time having a full band,” said Eilish, 22. “It's always been my brother Finneas — this is the first tour without him. Love you, Finneas!”

O’Connell released a solo album, “For Cryin’ Out Loud!”, last week, and was indeed not on stage in Newark for the majority of the show. But about 15 minutes after Eilish said she was missing her big bro, he came out with his guitar for two closing songs, the rocker “Happier Than Ever,” and the sweetly uplifting new ballad, “Birds of a Feather.”

Eilish and O'Connell looked all Richards and Wood with pyrotechnic flashes accentuating their power chords. The two crossed guitars, then raised them after “Happier Than Ever” as the crowd cheered.

The ending was quite a flourish to a dynamic hour and forty minutes of Eillish's genre-bending music, which arches from minimalist electro-pop to booming EDM to vocal ballads and more. Eilish, whose Newark audience was primarily young females, compels on multiple levels.

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She has a striking, sonorous voice, and quite a stage presence, too. Elish delivered “The Greatest,” from latest album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” with an exquisitely breathy vocal run while lying on a suspended platform with her head and right leg hanging off.

That's taking command of a stage.

Eilish and her band were on a rectangular floor-length stage with multiple floating video screens and two band pits. The stage floor itself produced video images, and it could became quite vivid color-wise, such as striking reds and yellows for the risqué “Lunch.” Mostly the stage colors set the tone with a darker hues of aqua blues and shadows of gray, befitting the tone of the lyrics and music.

Much of the music has an avant-garde, jazzy quality embedded into the songs. Feeling is more important than form and Eilish is expanding the boundaries of pop stardom. A detriment is while the bass on the EDM-leaning up tempo songs is fine, it booms too loudly in the mix for the softer ballads, undermining the mood.

Still, Eilish is phenom. She wore a big New Jersey Nets shirts and baggy shorts on stage at the Prudential Center, where the Nets used to play before moving to Brooklyn. Eilish knows the terrain. At the close of the show she sat on the stage and sang her “Barbie” smash, “What Was I Made For,” with the packed arena singing along.

“I will always be there for you guys,” said Eilish before the song.

Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard and Soft tour setlist: Newark

• Chihiro
• Lunch
• NDA
• Therefore I Am
• Wildflower
• When the Party's Over
• The Diner
• Ilomilo
• Bad Guy
• The Greatest
• Male Fantasy
• Skinny
• TV
• Bittersuite
• Bury a Friend
• Oxytocin
• You Should See Me in a Crowd
• Guess
• Everything I Wanted
• Blue
• Lovely
• Idontwannabeyouanymore
• Ocean Eyes
• L'amour de ma Vie
• What Was I Made For?
• Happier Than Ever
• Birds of a Feather

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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at cjordan@app.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Billie Eilish hits Hard and Soft, and brother Finneas surprises Prudential Center: Review