Billie Eilish at the TD Garden in Boston

A few songs into her performance at TD Garden on Friday night, pop fantasy Billie Eilish asked the adoring crowd for a surprising favor: She wanted the room to be quiet for about a minute.

The singer-songwriter, whose meteoric rise from her brother's home studio to arena stages is one of the brightest pop stories of recent years, prepared to perform her minimalist 2018 single “when the party's over.” The backing track consists largely of Eilish's vocals, which were overdubbed on the recording to resemble a ghost choir; The Los Angeles native wanted to recreate this effect live, but she needed the silence of the audience for the effect to be fully realized.

“It is the only time in my life that I will ask you for silence,” she said, “because I love noise more than anything else in this world.”

The audience obeyed, allowing her sad, wordless singing and the breaths she took between phrases to fill the arena, layer by layer. After a few listens, Eilish seemed satisfied with her work, her smile doubling as a signal to those gathered to increase their volume, but not so much that they would distract from the fragile, wounded beauty of the song at hand.

Such dichotomies – between harrowing bass lines and muted vocals, musical beauty and lyrical ugliness, carefree dance and existential contemplation, audiences of thousands and groups of two – have driven Eilish's music from the start. She and her brother and fellow Slash artist Finneas O'Connell have a deep creative relationship and shared vision that has resulted in unique tracks, many of which have gone on to become blockbusters.

Their first pop hit, “Bad Guy,” which appeared on their 2019 debut album “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?”, is equal parts menacing and playful, its rumbling bassline and horror-movie synths bringing it to life Whispers even more threatening. “What Was I Made For?”, her crystal-clear Oscar-winning contribution to the 2023 companion album “Barbie,” delves into femininity portrayed in both modeling clay and flesh, with the song’s relatable discomfort from both The lack of resolution comes from both its pure production and its original version. And her verse on Charli Arena was bathed in lights in a hue that could only be called “brat green.”) Despite their different styles and approaches, some of each track on Friday filled and thrilled the Garden during Eilish's captivating, fast-paced set.

Eilish's latest album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, delves even deeper into the contradictions, as the title might suggest. Sharp critiques of modern culture like the rousing opening track “SKINNY” meet the gathering storm of “THE GREATEST,” which felt like an emotional climax on Friday.

The album also had its own breakthrough hit on the left. While the pumping, flirtatious “LUNCH” was chosen as the album's lead single, upon the album's release listeners flocked to “BIRDS OF A FEATHER,” a love song with haunting synths and passionate lyrics delivered from the altar or the abyss could be. and a bold vocal performance from Eilish that combines the vulnerability of her upper register with a newfound power that highlights the big feelings stirring beneath her glow.

The cut ended Friday night's set, and its final push served as Eilish and her faithful's last chance to experience complete catharsis – and both parties did so with gusto, with the shared gratitude of audience and performer feeding off one another as confetti floated from the rafters.

BILLIE EILISH

With Nat & Alex Wolff

At TD Garden, Friday, October 11th