Halsey performs at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago on June 17, 2025.
By Nina Tadic
There is a certain level of spirit and precision that goes into a show like the one Halsey puts on every night.
For those who don’t know, Halsey’s last album, The Great Impersonator, is an introspective, raw, “Can you see that I’m bleeding on the stage” look at their life over the past few years – the life of a musician, an artist, a single mother to a toddler, someone who is chronically ill and was privately battling both lupus and a rare t-cell lymphoproliferative disorder. This is someone who has been heart-shattered, earth-shattered, and lived through it, and in the process, put together a body of work that pulls on inspirations across genres from the latter half of the twentieth century. Halsey wears a translucent mask in each song by performing in a style inspired by a specific artist (or a few), while still telling their own story within that musical style. Inspirations like Dolly Parton and Springsteen are present, but at the same time, so are Fiona Apple, Aaliyah, and Monica. This album has the dynamic range that some artists search for their whole lives across their full catalogs of music.
In an interview with Variety, they said of their current For My Last Trick Tour “It had to be about the whole thing, all of the last 11 years, in some ways, because I felt like I was coming back to touring and back to the stage with so much more perspective and such a changed point of view on everything that I had done for years before that.” This tour is not an album tour, though it is not a greatest hits tour, or an eras tour, either. It is a surrealist deep-dive into Halsey’s experiences as an artist, performer, and human being.
Split into two acts, the performance is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass. See Halsey’s The Great Impersonator bonus track, “Alice of the Upper Class”, which draws on Alice Through the Looking Glass, as well. “Like Alice Through the Looking Glass, I’m tired of the upper class, I wanna go back, go back, go back, go back,” she sings, drawing the comparison between being thrust into the limelight as a musician and Alice’s falling down the rabbit hole into a new world. It is disconcerting and uncomfortable, even if it appears to be magical and wonderful. With that considered, it makes complete sense that they would also base the tour around this analogy.
Halsey performs at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago on June 17, 2025.
Before Halsey takes the stage in Chicago to a sold-out Huntington Bank Pavilion, “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane blares through the speakers – Grace Slick’s voice echoing through the pavilion as she sings about chasing rabbits and pills making you tall and small. And then… it’s time.
The stage remains black, but the screens begin a pre-filmed video of Alice (Halsey) in her blue babydoll dress, white stockings, black mary janes, and a black bob wig, as she explores the gardens, runs through a hedge maze, and stumbles upon none other than… a rabbit hole. As she peers in and loses her footing, she falls in – the crowd roars, the screens go black, and for a few seconds show a calligraphy-penned font that says “act i: alice falls down the rabbit hole”.
The curtain is drawn up on a stage that is made up to look like a traditional broadway theatre or burlesque show – velvet trim, golden lights, the whole shebang. Once the curtain is fully pulled, Halsey (as Alice) is visible onstage behind a piano, where she begins to serenade the crowd with The Great Impersonator’s “Darwinism.” A song inspired by the sounds of David Bowie, “Darwinism” is a stripped down track where Halsey ponders evolution, natural selection, and whether or not there’s something wrong with them – as if they’ve missed some key evolutionary moment that would make them like everyone else. She croons “they say that God makes no mistakes, but I might disagree” in a voice that is clear as crystal and rings through the air. As she performs the song, behind her onscreen is a stop-motion animation of a paper cut-out Halsey falling down the rabbit hole, through time and space: the beginning of the Alice narrative that is act I.
Halsey performs at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago on June 17, 2025.
Following this performance, the curtain is lowered again, and the audience is paid another visit by Alice on the screens. She wanders the gardens, stopping in her tracks when she meets the white rabbit (who is, in this film, a real, live white rabbit, who is being voiced by U2’s Bono). In a conversation with the rabbit, Alice asks where she is, to which the rabbit response “Wear? What will you wear?” and when Alice asks what the rabbit is talking about, he exclaims “The show, of course!” This is the first Alice is told that she is Halsey, and she is going to have to put on a show (act ii). After a bit more conversing, per the rabbit’s suggestion, Alice takes a drink (“one potion makes you small, the other big”, says the rabbit, to which she exclaims “I’d like to be big! Big as can be. As big as the moon!” and drinks the potion). Following this begins the next portion of act I.
For the next three songs, Halsey (as Alice) performs a burlesque routine in a giant martini glass onstage (complete with a staircase and backup dancers in burlesque glam, as well). The irony in Alice’s begging to be big, but being small enough to fit in a glass, perhaps symbolizes that being a musician and having some level of celebrity is big, but still makes one feel small within that social sphere. During their burlesque portion of the performance, “Alice” performs “Bad at Love”, “Alone”, and “Lucky”. All three of these songs tie into Halsey being “big” in some way – “Bad at Love” was one of their first major radio singles/hits, “Alone” is explicitly about being socially popular but feeling genuinely alone/isolated, and “Lucky” is about Halsey’s struggles while being a star – scrutiny from the press, speculation about drug use (when she was actually very sick), and being alone, but being told that being famous is so lucky and worth all of it.
Halsey performs at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago on June 17, 2025.
After these three, Alice (onscreen) tells the rabbit she feels too big and she doesn’t want to be big anymore. The next three songs, of course, touch on this – the feeling of having enough and wanting it all to STOP. Halsey appears onstage in a glossy black lingerie set – underwear, top, and garters, and leather boots with stars on the soles – all of her clothing covered in spikes, and so are the chains and dog collar she wears as she’s chained up in what looks like a castle dungeon, splayed out on a checkerboard floor. The first song she performs during this portion of the set is “Dog Years”, a song they’ve previously referred to as a “sexy” song, though a dark one. Inspired by the sounds of PJ Harvey, but interpolating Slipknot’s “Vermillion”, this one tells the narrative of begging to be put down like a dying dog, begging to get into heaven, but God pulling you back and refusing to let you die/let you in. At the end of the song, Halsey screams “I’m 196 in dog years, I have seen enough, I’ve seen it ALL” as they rip at the chains and collar, and their yell echoes through the pavilion. Following this one, they’re unchained, though still in the dungeon, as they perform If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’s “I am Not a Woman, I’m a God”. During this song, Halsey’s backup dancers also wear sexy, gothic lingerie-styled outfits, as they form pyramids, thrones, and circles around her. “I am not a martyr, I’m a problem,” they echo, and this song is another reference to Halsey being scrutinized in the spotlight, having to carry too much weight and responsibility, etc. Sometimes being treated like a god is not the pleasantry one would think – and placing the song at this point in the set is a great way to convey that. Following this one is Badlands’ “Control” where Halsey cries out “Goddamn right, you should be scared of me – who is in control?” and then in the eeriest, most haunting voice express “I’m well acquainted with villains that live in my head.” This song, expressing the lack of control one has as a celebrity, as someone “larger than life”, etc, rounds out the “alice feels too big!” portion of our first act.
Once Alice has been shrunken down, she exclaims to the rabbit that she now feels too small – and then we see that with her next few song choices: “Lilith”, “Angel on Fire”, and “The Tradition”. “Lilith” touches on how the narrator “just fucks things up, if you noticed” and gives too much and has even more taken away from them, all experiences that are the epitome of feeling small. “Angel on Fire” refers to the myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun, in this case, biting off more than you can chew by trying to “be big”, and then “The Tradition” follows, where Halsey sports a black lace bodysuit with a train, singing on a bare stage while the front edge is doused in flames. She tells the tale of a woman used and abused, one who learns to harden herself against the male-run reality she finds herself stuck in.
Halsey performs at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago on June 17, 2025.
By this point in the set, Alice has had enough, and she gives the rabbit a piece of her mind. Following this, we see contemplation on love, betrayal, and humanity in Halsey’s music, through the performances of “Panic Attack”, “Graveyard”, and “Only Living Girl in LA”. During the first of these, Alice takes our stage in a flowing, cream, custom-designed Selkie dress that flares around her as she twirls and flows as she floats across the stage. It drapes around her as she sits in a giant, bemused-faced crescent moon, and two other moons hang from the ceiling behind her (the practical effects throughout the performance from one scene to the next are astounding and near unheard of for a concert tour). During “Graveyard” she stays in the moon, but the set shifts to a deeper blue and purple night, as opposed to a dreamy, pastel wonderland. Ironically, the emotions evoked from these two songs are both about anxiety and love, but the first is about confusing new love for anxiety, and the other is about confusing manipulation and anxiety for love.
(Side note: The moon and stage lighting changing from one song to the next may be a subtle nod to Halsey’s “Good Mourning” which contains the lyrics “‘Don’t trust the moon, she’s always changing’ / The shores bend and break for her / And she begs to be loved, but nothing here is as it seems”, which would tie in well with the Alice Through the Looking Glass inspiration, the opposites mirroring one another in this portion of the set, and the illusions that have tricked Alice into chasing after being big and being small and finally having enough).
Halsey performs at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago on June 17, 2025.
After these two, Alice finishes act I with “Only Living Girl in LA”, which is a beautiful acoustic serenade to a crowd that is absolutely enamored by her. This one, an inside look at Halsey’s own realizations about mortality, popularity, celebrity, and their impact on the world around them – and what all of that means. And the importance of being comfortable with solitude within the scope of all of that.
Once Alice is finished with this portion of the performance, she is rushed off the stage to “get ready for the show” and continues to exclaim that she doesn’t know what show anyone is talking about! She is followed to a vanity mirror backstage by a camera, where she drowsily dozes off on the vanity counter. A few minutes later, we see a sign that says “alice wake up!” on the screen, and then comes act II: the show.
For the show, we are greeted by Halsey, who is the most literal inverse of Alice. Instead of a black wig and blue dress, she sports a blue wig (a la Badlands) and a black Selkie babydoll dress. Instead of greeting us delicately with a piano serenade, she greets us in giant black boots to belt out a performance of “Lonely is the Muse” (inspired by the stylings of Amy Lee / Evanescence). They are punky, edgy, and a lightning storm onstage. There is also some (very intentional) irony in starting “the show” with a song about lonely it is to be objectified as a muse for others’ enjoyment – after performing a full act that is literally just humoring the audience as a muse and a character in a show.
Halsey performs at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago on June 17, 2025.
The other interesting concept to consider here is that while “Alice” is a character, she is Halsey’s mirror in this stage show – she is Halsey through the looking glass – which is to say she’s perhaps… Ashley? (Halsey’s legal name is Ashley, and they have specified before that what they do as Halsey is very different than what they do as Ashley, musically and otherwise. Ash is who they are to their family and close friends, Halsey is who they are to fans.) Does this mean that the introspective look through Alice’s looking glass in act I was actually a look into Ashley’s experiences, because she is the one performing as The Muse (The Muse being Halsey)? That’s for them to decide, and us to continue pondering and ruminating on.
Going back to act II though: this is the act that is much more of a traditional Halsey performance – there are sparks, there are flames, and there are surprises throughout the night. It is blatantly clear that Halsey loves performing in Chicago, not only because they say it more than once, but because they pull out a plethora of old-school fan favorites and rare pieces alike – after performing in this city for over a decade, it makes complete sense that they spoil its crowds every time they come through. “I cut my teeth here, you know?” they tell the crowd, and everyone roars with cheers.
On the setlist for Chicago, three songs into act II is written “Alice OR Castle” – Halsey tells the crowd that there are some moments where she has to feel the crowd out to see what their vibe is, what songs they want to hear. She begins playing Badlands’ “Castle” which has always been a crowd-pleaser, and tells the crowd to get off their feet. Suddenly, this pavilion’s crowd looks more like a Lollapalooza headliner’s crowd. There is not a person standing still in sight, it is just a sea of bodies surging off the ground, waving their arms, and singing every word. Suddenly, part way through the chorus, Halsey stops the song – but the crowd continues it. “God damn. I was going to stop the song because I thought you guys weren’t jumping hard enough and then you did THAT. I think Chicago just beat Castle…” The crowd, coated in aqua blue light, cheers and shrieks to their hearts’ content, and Halsey starts the song over. And thus, the crowd gets Castle as a surprise song not once, but twice in a row. An anomaly. Later in the set, after a few other Badlands’ tracks, as well as Manic’s “You Should Be Sad”, the crowd is gifted another special treat. “Chicago, do you know what time it is?!” The dial-tone intro kicks in, and the crowd goes ballistic as she begins a deep cut off of 2020’s Manic that never got its flowers – “3 AM”. Following this, she ties up the set with a rock version of her first hit single, “Closer”, and then “Nightmare,” before moving onto a very special encore with a very special guest.
Halsey performs at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago on June 17, 2025.
Immediately after the lights go black and the crowd begins chanting for one more, Lauren Jauregui, featured on Hopeless Fountain Kingdom on the track “Strangers”, makes her way onstage in a black velvet dress to serenade the crowd alongside Halsey, who matches her in a black lace nighty. The two spin around one another, crooning the lyrics about forbidden love, and craving one another’s touch. As they finish, Halsey wraps Lauren in a giant hug, thanking her again, and shouts “and that’s on pride month, baby!” She then proceeds to tell the crowd how special their friendship has always been, and how magical it is to share the stage with a longtime friend, as well.
After “Strangers” with Lauren, Halsey does have to run offstage for a minute to deal with a technical difficulty (they appear to have pulled loose something on their chest port, and come back with what seem to be tissues tucked into the neckline of their dress, reassuring fans that everything is all good – this is just a small reminder from the universe to the fans and critics alike that Halsey is doing a performance that would be very strenuous for anyone, and doing it with their current health issues is twice as ballsy and triply as impressive). Once they’ve returned and thanked the crowd for their support again, they gift one more parting song to the audience – their hit single “Without Me.” Though act II typically ends with “The Great Impersonator”, Chicago’s strict curfew did cause the set to end a song early – but it still ended strongly, with every person in the pavilion singing along, and then afterwards, every person in the pavilion gushing about what a hell of a performance it was.
Halsey puts on a performance that is no joke. As far as making music goes – it sometimes seems that the word “artist” is used too leniently in some cases – but in Halsey’s, it can’t be used any better, because they are a true artist. Every detail of the performance is phenomenal, from the costuming to the choreography, the lighting to the film shorts, the stage props to the set designs to the special effects – not a single thing falls short. The “For My Last Trick” Tour is not just a trick, and it’s not just a show. It is a work of art painted brushstroke by brushstroke by the ultimate illusionist, the Great Impersonator herself, Halsey. Don’t blink and miss it – this tour is one worth keeping your eyes on from start to end.
(Photos and review by Nina Tadic – follow Nina on Instagram at @ninatadiccreative)