Halsey – Spark Arena April 19, 2018

 

Halsey brings “The sound of young America” to Auckland as her Hopeless Fountain Kingdom World Tour resumes after a five-month layoff.

More specifically, Halsey’s music seems to be the sound of young, female America, with songs that address pressing issues such as empowerment, sexual assault, mental health and, of course, relationships.

Those issues and Halsey’s songs apparently resonate with the young female population of New Zealand as hundreds of them were camped out in front of Auckland’s Spark Arena hours before the doors were due to open.

Halsey did, indeed, spend some time with her fans before making a quick appearance at Spark’s “new customer space”, a bar and lounge called “S”. A handful of industry and media types were treated to a couple of tunes performed by Halsey and she answered a few questions before running off to prepare for her show.

Meanwhile opening act Kehlani was in the big house getting the crowd warmed up. Her set was upbeat and well received with the soon-to-be 23 year old sporting a slightly longer version of her blonde hair…giving off a bit of a Marilyn/Madonna vibe.

Halsey’s set began with the highly processed vocals of Prologue, from Hopeless Fountain Kingdom and slid right into Eyes Closed.

As she dipped back to 2015’s Badlands for Hold Me Down and Castle, Halsey ordered her young fans to “jump up and down”.

“I’m gonna tell you guys exactly why you came here tonight” she announced before Heaven In Hiding.

“I can put on a show” she sang…and she was right. With only a drummer and keyboard player, and occasionally a dancer on stage with her, Halsey had no problem keeping the crowd entertained.

Finally, after Strangers, which she dedicated to the LGBT community, Halsey formally welcomed the crowd to her tour, noting how she and they were so much older than when they first connected musically.

Now, a cynic may chuckle hearing a 23 year old telling a roomful of 20 year olds pining for the good old days, but hey, when you are in your early 20s, your teens seem like a long time ago. Halsey explained  how the show and her performance would “take you back to that place when you were 16”, so you could “recognized how much stronger you are now”.

The point was reinforced with the nostalgic Roman Holiday.

The real meat of the show seemed to take place midway as the anthemic Bad At Love gave way to Alone and the piano-led Closer, the number one hit Halsey recorded with The Chainsmokers. This then led to another piano ballad, Sorry, and on to the sexual tension of Lie.

The second half of the show built up steam with Don’t Play’s crowd-pleasing chorus of “Women, don’t play no games!”

The excitement grew through G-Eazy’s Him & I and on to 100 Letters, a song the received a lengthy and powerful story after its performance that then led to Is There Somewhere, from Halsey’s 2014 EP, Room 93.

From there it was literally a race to the finish as the singer and her crew took a lap around the arena, giving fans a chance to get close.

“Are you ready to go home?” she taunted, before a singalong version of Young God.

But all good things must come to an end, and 105 minutes after taking the stage, Halsey finished up with Hurricane, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that this young woman is indeed a talent to be reckoned with.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Michael Flynn:

Halsey set list:

1. Prologue
2. Eyes Closed
3. Hold Me Down
4. Castle
5. Good Mourning
6. Heaven In Hiding
7. Strangers
8. Roman Holiday
9. Walls Could Talk
10. Bad At Love
11. Alone
12. Closer
13. Sorry
14. Lie
15. Don’t Play
16. Him & I
17. 100 Letters
18. Is There Somewhere
19. Now Or Never
20. Colors
21. Young God
22. Hopeless
23. Gasoline
24. Hurricane