Live Review: Halsey, Borns

There's not a single empty seat at the Palais tonight. Halsey's support act Borns hits the stage and gets everyone warmed up with dreamy vocals intertwined with heavy bass lines. Borns twists and manoeuvres all over the stage. His intense vibe has everyone eating out of the palm of his hand and the guy can really sing, too.

It's interval and there is darkness, brooding music, and then screams — hysteric screams. Halsey walks out on stage — sorry, struts (this girl has some serious attitude). The light show is spectacular, green lasers piercing through every inch of the historic building as Halsey opens with Gasoline. Her voice is killer and she hits each note perfectly, the crowd singing every lyric right back at her. The electro-pop sounds coming from the keyboard, supported by big drum beats, ring out over the crowd as she breaks into hit song, New Americana. There's definitely a connection between Halsey and her fans; she's like some kind of girl gang leader, who just seems to get them and what they're about. The hoard of followers sway and bop to every beat. "Sorry about the seats, I tried to pry them out of the ground before I came on. If you stay out of those seats we're going to have a good fucking time!" says Halsey. 

Suspense-building pauses and stage exits add to the theatrics of the show as menacing melodies create the perfect atmosphere during Castle, Haunting and Roman Holiday. Lyrically and musically, Halsey invites her followers into the dark crevices of her mind. Every lyric is raw and honest; she genuinely seems grateful to be up there doing her thing. "Me, this album, it wasn't meant to work out!" She flies into another crowd favourite, Ghost — it's a little rockier than the others but the reaction from the punters is no different. She takes the opportunity to jump into the crowd as Is There Somewhere begins; girls scream and cry as she walks through the entire ground floor of the theatre.

Back on stage, Colors and Hurricane are well received before she announces her final song Hold Me Down and, like the others, it's melodic, dark but poppy, and the anticipation for the big bass drop builds... then BAM! There it is! There is certainly a bit of a pattern to a Halsey song, but it works for her. The encore and most eagerly awaited song of the night is Young God. It's hard to actually hear the music over the screams of the crowd but Halsey manages to get us singing along and waving our hands in the air as the show wraps up on a really electric note.