At Billie Eilish’s Arena Show, the Only Spectacle Is Herself

The 20-year-old musician’s staging at Madison Square Garden was minimal compared to many pop extravaganzas. The concert’s power was fueled by her animated presence.

Billie Eilish’s latest album, “Happier Than Ever,” is a rather muted affair — acoustic ballads, fluttery, crooned tunes, even a hushed bossa nova number — so it was worth wondering how such material would translate in the arenas the 20-year-old pop phenom is playing on her Happier Than Ever: The World Tour. But the nearly 20,000 frenzied fans screaming along to every word at her triumphant Madison Square Garden concert on Saturday night proved that, at least when they’re performed live, there’s no such thing as a quiet Billie Eilish song.

At this second of two back-to-back Garden shows, Eilish commanded every inch of the stage like a hyperactive court jester. During the more macabre hits from her 2019 album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” like “Bad Guy” and “Bury a Friend,” the signature mischievous glint in her eyes transmitted all the way to the cheap seats. Eilish wore her jet-black hair in high pigtail-buns and, to facilitate her near-constant pogoing, sported sneakers, bike shorts and a punky oversized graphic tee. The effect was a cross between Harley Quinn, Minnie Mouse and Glenn Danzig.

Early in the set, she laid out the night’s only ground rule: “Have fun, bitch.” She later expressed gratitude that the crowd was present and alive, but never directly mentioned the pandemic. For nearly two hours, the arena was an escape where the only lurking dangers were the powerful figures that haunt Eilish’s songs — men she handily disarmed while the crowd chanted back every word of the barbed kiss-off “Therefore I Am,” and sat rapt as she strummed “Your Power.”