Gothic visions of the eight-legged kind aren’t the only distraction during an extraordinary online show from the
California teen phenomenon
This is no gig for arachnophobes. Just as physical gigs used to warn people about strobe lights, Billie Eilish’s debut live stream might have included a trigger warning for anyone to whom a 10ft scuttling “extended reality” spider might give pause.
You suspect, though, that this mischievous, boundary-pushing artist would really love to provoke a neurological as well as an emotional reaction in her fans. The hairy nightmare vision stalks the 18-year-old
Singer as she moves around the stage – constructed as a hi-tech 3D green screen – singing You Should See Me in a Crown. A many-jointed leg just misses impaling Eilish by a hair’s breadth every time. The massive spider – one of a number of VR-like scenarios created for this streamed performance – recalls its smaller brethren from the track’s 2019 video. Tonight, its shape also visually echoes the two sharp-angled silhouetted rigs that bookend the singer: Eilish’s brother and writing partner Finneas on keyboards to the left and the duo’s drummer, Andrew Marshall, to the right. The track comprehensively nails Eilish’s best creepy trap-pop, her commitment to fear – either subjectively felt or objectively provoked – and her love of insider references.