Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Monsta X Star On Daytime Stage At The 2019 iHeartRadio Music Festival

Daytime Stage

This year's DAYTIME STAGE at the 2019 iHEARTRADIO MUSIC FESTIVAL featured three of the most highly anticipated performances of the weekend in BILLIE EILISH, H.E.R. and JUICE WRLD, who rounded out this afternoon's festivities on a sizzling day at the  LAS VEGAS FESTIVAL GROUNDS before an estimated crowd of 30,000.

EILISH did her best to grab the spotlight during her half-hour, seven-song set, adding fuel to anyone wondering why pop music’s 17-year-old rookie of the year wunderkind wasn’t booked for the main nighttime event. Wearing a lime-green T-shirt, baggy short and a clunky walking boot protecting a sprained ankle, she opened with the jumpy, ominous “Bad Guy,” the whispery, unlikely pop hit that seeks to correct centuries of patriarchal domination. “You Should See Me in a Crown” is spooky, insistent, EILISH’s vocals barely audible above the crowd hollering along. “All the Good Girls Go to Hell” proves she’s the KURT COBAIN or ALANIS MORISSETTE of her generation, defining a zeitgeist in terms of gender identity, anti-materialism and simply being more human to one another in the wake of encroaching artificial intelligence.  She struts the stage with brother FINNEAS O’CONNELL plunking the bass and plucking lead guitar for the bottom-heavy meditation on identity theft, “Cooycat.” which revved up the crowd to an undulating fever pitch mass of bodies. The dreamy “Ocean Eyes” calmed everyone down. She prefaces “When the Party’s Over” by asking the crowd offer gratitude for being alive. “Call me friend but keep me closer.” It’s a measured goodbye to an ex, “Let’s just let it go.”  The pounding, clippity-clop “Bury a Friend” asked the question which serves as the album title, “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?” EILISH is a teenager for these strangely fraught, apocalyptic times, inheriting an uncertain world, trying to save us from destruction, one song at a time. In this case, let's up what happens in VEGAS doesn't stay there because this was a career performance by any measure. 

Headliner GABRIELA WILSON better known as H.E.R., has already proven herself with an impressive, GRAMMY performance and, if not for EIILISH, she may well have been the main story TODAY. She sauntered to the stage with an acoustic guitar, wearing bicycle shorts and high-top kicks, digging into “Carried Away,” which she delivered with soulful ease, strapping on a bass as the band slipped into a wah-wah funk groove, then manning the keys. It’s sophisticated, multi-cultural music, representing the BAY AREA R&B tradition of SLY, TOWER OF POWER and others. The intimate, seductive “Best Part,” a collaboration with DANIEL CAESAR, recalls STEVIE WONDER at his best, while “Fate” offers a plea for mercy. (“Can we forgive all of my sins?” to the tune of a gurgling organ and a yearning, keening vocal.  “Hard Place” is the new single, a song about wanting someone or something that might not be exactly good for you.  “I’m caught between your love and a hard place,” she emoted wistfully, building to H.E.R.’s scorching guitar solo and some ELLA-style vocal scatting. This H.E.R. can do it all. 

The show got underway at the stroke of 11a (PT) with JUNO-award winning EDM stalwarts LOUD LUXURY, (ANDREW FEDYK and JOE DE PACE) performing their hit single, "Body," which has over 578 million streams on SPOTIFY and was 2018's most played dance music song of 2018. 

Here was TODAY's schedule: LOUD LUXURY (11a PT), CNCO (11;15a PT), BRYCE VINE (11;40a PT), LAUV (12p PT), BRETT YOUNG (12;30p PT), FLETCHER (1:05p PT), OLD DOMINION (1:35p PT), ZARA LARSSON (2:10p PT), MAREN MORRIS (2:40p PT), MONSTA X (3:15p PT), JUICE WRLD (3:45p PT), BILLIE EILISH (4:20p PT) and H.E.R. (5p PT)..

Early highlights included FLETCHER reprising last night's "If You're Gonna Lie" for the sun-drenched crowd and adding "About You," a song she didn't sing at FRIDAY night's performance, while the hooks in LAUV's jaunty, self-affirming "I Like Me Better" seemed to connect with the crowd.  EDM house music star ZARA LARSSON's "Never Forget You" turned the outdoor venue into a sweaty club for the moment.

The latter part of the day's lineup rivaled that of the two evening shows, starting with the arrival of country crossover thrush MAREN MORRIS, who sashayed on-stage in a short black skirt with a giant silver belt buckle, halter top, high heels, and a guitar slung over her shoulder for a stately “Girl,” the title track to her most recent album (“Everyone’s gonna be OK, baby,” she purrs). “I don’t know why I wore black today,” she mused to the crowd in between songs, then showcased two more tracks in the sturdy “The Bones” (“The house don’t fall when the bones are good”) and the slinky, yearning funk of “RSVP,” both vocal showcases from the new effort. She followed that up with a sultry, stripped-down “The Middle” (the laptops were apparently being affected by the heat) and finished with a gospel-infused “My Church.”  LAS VEGAS might not be the first place you'd think about chanting, "Can I get a hallelujah?"

Seven-piece SOUTH KOREAN K-POP phenoms MONSTA X, who joined STEVE AOLI on-stage last night, returned for a daytime performance in front of rowdy fans pumped to see them in the 100-degree-plus heat. The elaborate dance choreography of “Chill Out” is interspersed with the occasional “waka waka waka waka” and rap interludes.  "Who Do U Love?" their collaboration with FRENCH MONTANA, is pure dance-pop for now people, a shameless confection. Like fellow KOREAN conglomerate SAMSUNG, MONSTA X take an AMERICAN invention – boy bands – and update, improve and streamline it for the 21st century. All hail global pop, and iHEARTRADIO for embracing and promoting it. The pure energy is infectious.

BRYCE VINE and LOUD LUXURY returned for their sing-song collab, “I’m Not Alright,” before 20-year-old dread locked CHICAGO native JUICE WRLD, who burst onto the mainstream in 2018 with “Lucid Dreams,” and has since become one of the most popular hip-hop performers of the moment, took the stage.  He entered with his self-described credo,  "Armed and Dangerous," and proceededt from there, offering a glimpse of his vulnerable, insecure side in "All Girls Are The Same" and the infectious "Hear Me Calling," which shows how he  tempers his hard-core sensibility with a populist spin. "Fine China," his feature with FUTURE, was next, featuring the great line, "Goin' insane, feel you pickin' up and  movin' things inside my brain," followed by "Black & White," the party anthem that's more a cautionary tale than anything, which concludes with some inspired free-styling. . JUICE WRLD then tackled the ominous "Devil Horns," asking to "smoke with me, drink with me.... If I overdose you're gonna drop with me." Beneath the sweet hip-pop surface lies a tortured man.  He finished with an appropriate nod to the afternoon with his TRAVIS SCOTT joint, "The Party Never Ends" before seguing into the aching "Robbery" and his longing breakthrough, "Lucid Dreams," ending in an inspired a cappella freestyle.

THE DAYTIME STAGE has traditionally been the place for up and coming acts over the years.since it began in  2013 with MILEY CYRUS, JASON DeRULO and TWENTY ONE PILOTS.  Since then, it has hosted ,5 SECONDS OF SUMMER, CHILDISH GAMBINO, KACEY MUSGRAVES, NICK JONAS,. ALESSIA CARA,  LOGIC, DUA LIPA, GRETA VAN FLEET, LIL UZI VERT and BAD BUNNY, among others.

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