Tag: hit me hard and soft tour

In a show that blended towering flames, lasers and heart-wrenching ballads, the most stunning feat of Billie Eilish’s first night in Charlotte for “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR” was a stretch of sixty silent seconds.

The megastar wrangled the audience as she whirled through her three-album discography — spanning from lo-fi ballads to rock to alternative pop — in the newly-renovated Spectrum Center Sunday.

Without caution, that whirl could’ve caused whiplash. But Eilish owned the basketball-court sized stage and guided with ease the nearly sold out crowd wearing bandanas, knee-length jorts, loosely tied ties and jerseys (I spotted no Carolina Panthers nor Charlotte Hornets swag).

After skipping and sprinting and rolling on a floating platform as high-energy hits “CHIHIRO,” “LUNCH” and “Therefore I Am,” spewed through the speakers, the 23-year-old politely hushed fans as she approached her sixth song of the night.

“I’m going to be using a little loop on my voice, creating harmonies that I’m going to sing over,” she said as she sat cross-legged on a blacked out stage under a single spotlight. “It will only work if the entire room is completely silent for about one minute straight… as soon as the silence is over, go right back in, do all the things you normally do. Yell and shout and all of it, but we have to be very, very, very, very, very quiet. Okay?”

The crowd listened. Only after Eilish gave them the “O.K.” with a flash of her trademark grin did they burst into “when the party’s over.”

That mute minute in an otherwise ever-bobbing, ever-shouting crowd (a portion of which camped outside the Spectrum Center) was a testament to Eilish’s ability to hold her own on a stage that — other than the occasional burst of fire and blitzing lights — had little frill.

Eilish has come to North Carolina three times before. She opened for Florence + The Machine at the Spectrum Center in 2018 at 16 years old. She also brought her “Happier Than Ever” tour to Charlotte in 2022 and her “Where Do We Go?” tour to Raleigh in 2020.

The hour-and-a-half-long set list peaked at those opening hits and at later performances of “bad guy” and “Guess.” It beautifully softened at the slower songs, including “Your Power,” “ocean eyes,” and “What Was I Made For?”

While sitting atop a stool across from her two backup singers, Eilish reflected on the life outside the stadium.

“The world is in such a terrible place right now, and it’s weird to be doing something so, you know, it’s so fun,” she said. “It’s kind of deceiving to what is actually going on in the world. There’s part of me that feels like I shouldn’t even be doing it.”

“Maybe it’s not appropriate,” Eilish thought aloud the day after uptown’s streets and cities across the nation filled with anti-Trump “No Kings” protestors.

“And then I think… it’s really important that we all have something to keep us together, that we all have art,” she said before beginning “Your Power.”

Try not to abuse your power, she sang.

I know we didn’t choose to change

You might not wanna lose your power

But having it’s so strange

A neon pink sign shot into the air. “YOU CALM THE CHAOS,” it read.

Spectrum renovations unveiled

After that powerful acoustic set, I hit a two-and-a-half song lull.

In all fairness to Eilish, that drag may have been caused by my weekend spent at a wedding and the Spectrum Center soda fountains’ lack of Diet Coke.

The venue unveiled a $245 million renovation in tandem with Eilish’s show Sunday, touting 1,400 new lower-level seats, more signs, more bars and local flare to its food options. But none of the four soda stations I tried had Diet Coke. With a souvenir cup of full-sugar Coca-Cola, I may have been doomed to crash on song 13.

The crowd didn’t seem to be swept under the rip-tide that I treaded through “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” “bury a friend,” and part of “Oxytocin.” At least not the four-time Eilish tour attendee beside me and the two middle-schooled aged girls in front of me.

Even the adult accompanying the pair rode the wave. Though she did put her hand over her heart with a look of shock on her face as Eilish played her… suggestive duet with fellow pop star Charli xcx: Guess. You can read the lyrics here, if you’d like.

Eilish’s parents made an appearance at the end of the show, too. Her dad stoically waving on the jumbotron as Eilish thanked them and Finneas — her brother, co-writer and producer.

After giving a peek at her family, Eilish ran with a handheld camcorder linked to the big screen, showing her polo-wearing band and the soundboard masters stationed below the risers.

It was the cherry on top of a packed show that somehow still felt intimate — an ultimate feat for any artist.

Billie Eilish’s Charlotte setlist

CHIHIRO

LUNCH

NDA

Therefore I Am

WILDFLOWER

when the party’s over

THE DINER

ilomilo

bad guy

THE GREATEST

Your Power

SKINNY

TV

BITTERSUITE (transition)

bury a friend

Oxytocin

Guess (Charli xcx cover)

everything i wanted

lovely / BLUE / ocean eyes

L’AMOUR DE MA VIE

OVER NOW

What Was I Made For?

Happier Than Ever

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

This story was originally published October 20, 2025 at 2:40 PM.