Halsey Electrifies Los Angeles on the Opening Night of the Back To Badlands Tour
“You’re a little bit of an experiment show,” said Halsey onstage on 14 Oct. at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.
This performance marked the opening night of her Back to Badlands Tour, a tenth anniversary tour of her debut album, Badlands. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to be theatrical and committed to it, or get out here and be so fucking emotional,” she continued. “Right now, it feels like a little bit of both.”
After a preshow playlist of throwback 2015 pop-rock tracks, Halsey opened the show with a powerful performance of Gasoline. When she reached the lyric, “Do you call yourself a fucking hurricane like me?” she held the mic out for the audience, who screamed the words out to her. Just two minutes into the show, this crowd interaction moment would be a perfect taste of the energy for the rest of the night: Halsey would begin an old Badlands tour tradition, and her fans would join in without missing a beat. During the next song, Castle, fans jumped along to the chorus. Then, during Drive, they waved their flashlights in the air.
It isn’t just old fan traditions that have stuck with Halsey over the past decade. While Halsey’s artistry continues to develop, the aesthetics of Badlands have proven to be career-defining. For the entire show, Halsey used their vibrant stage visuals to take viewers on a tour of their imaginary Badlands world—from a bathroom in the Badlands Bar during Strange Love to the skyline along the Badlands city limit during Hurricane. Then, while performing a rock rendition of Closer, their diamond-certified collaboration with The Chainsmokers, the screens displayed adorable anime drawings of Halsey and their onstage band. However, the true highlight of her stage visuals was that for Lonely is the Muse. The audience was instructed to put on their Bad-Lens Glasses—a complimentary pair of 3D glasses—and enjoy the visuals coming to life before them.
As if Halsey’s captivating vocals and stage presence weren’t impressive enough alone, she also proved herself a strong performer with her attention to detail. When she wasn’t singing Badlands throwbacks or her radio hits, Halsey filled her 31-song setlist with meticulously chosen fan favorites. Some of these songs—like Bells in Santa Fe, Ego, and People Disappear Here—were left off her previous world tour setlists, much to her fans’ dismay, and now finally given a moment to shine. Then, there was her surprise performance of Garden, an unreleased demo that she scarcely mentions. As the first notes of Garden played, she joked with the crowd that this song would test their knowledge of Halsey lore. Finally, the main show concluded with an electrifying performance of Young God, a perfect closing song with a cathartic guitar solo.
After an encore cheer from the crowd, Halsey returned to the stage for Bad at Love. Then, they asked the crowd if they’d prefer to hear deep cuts or hits for the rest of the encore, and the fans screaming for deep cuts unsurprisingly won the vote. “Okay, we’ll do a deep cut,” Halsey agreed, grabbing their guitar for a tear-jerking acoustic performance of Trouble from their Room 93 EP. They followed it with their biggest surprise of the night: a performance of possibly their deepest cut, Tokyo Narita. “I was going to save this one for tomorrow night,” Halsey said, going into the song. “But [after knowing all the words to Trouble], you deserve it.”
The show ended with Is There Somewhere, a romantic love song that has taken on a new meaning within Halsey’s fandom: it’s a love song between Halsey and the fans themselves. The performance doubled as an act of the final old Badlands Tour tradition of the night. During the song’s outro, Halsey jumped down from the stage and climbed onto the front barricade, grabbing hold of some lucky fans’ hands and singing right to their faces. Even those in the back of the venue were emotionally moved, watching Halsey dedicate the words, “Could we pretend that we’re in love?” to her dedicated listeners.
While Halsey never fails to showcase their vocal prowess and exceptional performance skills with each tour they’ve conducted, the Back to Badlands Tour brings a new strength of theirs to light: their connection with their fanbase. Halsey’s commitment to their art has earned them an equally committed fanbase—a fanbase that knows how to jump, wave, and scream as if it were choreographed. The Back to Badlands Tour isn’t a step backwards for this alt-pop artist a decade into their career; rather, it’s a testament to their continuous growth.
