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Rising star Halsey owned a shrieking, singing crowd at South Side

The uproarious screams and singalongs at South Side Music Hall on Thursday evening took me right back to March of 2014 in the same venue, when the then-budding star Lorde made her first appearance in Dallas. During that show, an audience of hundreds of high school- and college-age fans treated the singer as if she were a rare bird, gasping at her presence whenever they weren't screaming.

The same kind of breathless reception was afforded the New Jersey artist Halsey on Thursday. Born Ashley Frangipane, the 21-year-old singer often draws comparisons to Lorde, and we can certainly hear why -- her confessional pop tunes are bare-bones and haunting, yet rooted in intensely melodic pop. Perfect for the radio climate of now and of the same ice-cool aesthetic.

Yet Halsey possesses her own artistic identity -- she's no mere Lorde-alike. Her debut full-length album Badlands is at many points more grown-up and contemplative than one would expect from the average pop star. And in a live setting, her vocal and lyrical edginess come out to blend beautifully with the fat beats and ominous synths that back her.

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During her short headlining set on Thursday at South Side, Halsey was flanked by a drummer and a synth/keys man, backed by vertical video panels providing atmospheric projections. She was the only moving part of the production, twitching and dancing to the opening song, "Gasoline," and later urging the crowd to bounce with her during "Haunting."

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Included in the set were all the tracks from Badlands, and it was obvious that this crowd had played the album over and over at home, at school, everywhere. The songs were sung at full volume with the artist by seemingly every fan in the place. We can imagine these kids looking back later and remembering their summer of Halsey.

(Allison Slomowitz / Special Contributor)
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What's remarkable is that as the fans were singing and fully engaged, so were their handheld devices. It's no longer about whether phones distract concertgoers from the experience -- they're now a vital part of it. It's commonplace when the lights go down and the canned music fades out for every phone in the place to go up in anticipation of the show's beginning.

I even caught one young woman letting a friend watch the show with her via FaceTime -- the friend's wide-eyed expression took up the entire phone screen. Face the future.

That the hundreds at South Side wanted to document every moment of this experience seemed more a flattering notion to the woman commanding the stage, who had nothing but nice, encouraging things to say to her crowd.

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During "Hurricane," a song about breaking free of both geographic and relationship ties, she looked out at them and said, "This song is a reminder that you don't belong to anybody but yourself." They lost it.

When she came to "New Americana," she set it up thusly: "This next song is a satire about a generation raised on diversity, about a generation raised on pop culture." And while the hit single name-checks both the Notorious B.I.G. and Nirvana, its own sound is largely stripped of obvious musical influences. It's really just pop in its purest, simplest form. Maybe that's why these listeners can't resist it.

(Allison Slomowitz / Special Contributor)