The fictitious town of Badlands came to life on Halsey’s headlining national tour for her album of the same name. The sold-out tour was filled with roaring crowds, outrageous lines, and special effects, making each show something unique. Halsey’s voice sounded even better live than it does recorded. On Friday, Oct. 23, Halsey did a hometown show at Webster Hall in New York City that was astoundingly iconic.
In such a short amount of time, Halsey has gained notable recognition in the media. The singer, who recently turned 21, has only been writing music since she was 17. She began professionally recording in 2014 and has since experienced a drastic increase in popularity. In this past year, she went from a small artist with a modest fan base to being one of the most talked about and prevalent artists in the media: she hit one million followers on Instagram, has launched an impressive debut album, and sold out an entire headlining tour.
Prior to this show, Halsey announced that she added a grand finale date to her tour next August at Madison Square Garden. She talked about this joyfully to her audience, and overall did a wonderful job of communicating with the crowd by thanking them for what they do for her and her career during the show. A cool thing about Halsey is that she is not an artist who got her career handed to her, so she still is a very down-to-earth person. You could tell she was sensible solely by the way she connected with the crowd.
With this increase in popularity has come a surge of enthusiastic fans. The crowd for this show was very lively, singing along and contributing to the energetic atmosphere. Halsey opened up with “Gasoline” as smoke filled the stage and vibrant lights crept across the room, delaying her exposure to the crowd. Towards the end of the concert, confetti was shot through the crowd, which represented the fake currency for the town Badlands. Little details like this set her concert apart from most; without these effects, Badlands would not have come to life the way that it did. When Halsey sang the beginning lyrics of her opener, she appeared through the smoke and the entire crowd began singing along with her, and in that moment you knew that the concert was going to be a memorable one.
Since she is from northern New Jersey, this performance was technically her hometown show, and her family was there to support her for it. It was both hilarious and adorable to see her father jam out and danceto every single one of her songs, just as all the younger fans were doing as well. The positive vibe was one of the best parts of the experience because it made it impossible to not enjoy yourself in the crowd.
If you compared the recorded version of Badlands to the way Halsey sounded performing it live, you would not be able to tell the difference. For this sole reason, the show she put on was unbelievable. You could tell how passionate she is about her work just by the way she portrayed herself on stage through her dancing, her connections with her fans, and her vocals.
The only setback of her show was that she did not play for that long. The set ended up being only an hour, which is on the shorter side for a main act. Halsey went on stage at 9 p.m. and closed the show just after 10. The fans begged for an encore and Halsey delivered with “Young God,” which was powerful regardless of its short length.
Overall, the Badlands concert was definitely not a show to miss. Halsey delivered a noteworthy performance that extended far beyond her talent. The entire atmosphere of the show was ultimately what pulled everything together to make for an unreal night. It’s wonderful to see Halsey do the amazing things she is doing, and she is only going forward from here.
IMAGE TAKEN from curiositiesandtales.blogspot.com
