Hilary Duff’s Phoenix concert sparkled with millennial nostalgia

Millennial nostalgia is reaching a fever pitch. The proof is everywhere. Madonna just released a follow-up to her absolute banger of an album, 2005’s “Confessions on a Dance Floor.” “Legally Blonde” got a made-for-television prequel. I’m not sure if you heard about it, but the most famous millennial had what will likely be the wedding of the century at Madison Square Garden this weekend. In short, millennial culture is currently dominating the cultural conversation. 

If you wanted evidence of this locally, all you had to do was attend Friday night’s Hilary Duff concert. The “Lizzie McGuire” star released a few popular albums in the 2000s, but then stopped. Her last one was released in 2015, but she returned to the studio about a decade later. Duff told the audience that she hadn’t toured for 18 years and that being back on the road was a shock to her system. Lucky for us, she returned to the stage to promote her latest album, “Luck… or Something.”

I’m not sure if Duff was ever taken seriously back in the day, but it’s easy for people to write off teenagers. It’s especially easy for people to write off someone like Duff. She is, after all, a bubbly, feminine blonde. Like Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde” demonstrates, people like that aren’t typically taken seriously. But the whole point of that now-classic movie is that they should be. Duff was quite the stage presence. She doesn’t dance, per se, but she knows how to engage an audience and work a camera. This is probably because she started honing those skills as a child.  

Duff’s stage was pink and featured a massive glittery disco ball hanging from the ceiling along with silvery, shimmering curtains that swayed in the air. Elle Woods would have approved. She kicked off the lively show by belting out the up-tempo “Wake Up,” “So Yesterday” and then a new track, “Roommates.” I had honestly forgotten how many hits she had. “So Yesterday” is one of my favorite jams of hers. It’s an optimistic tune about reminding yourself that you’ll be OK in spite of hardship. 

She then took a minute to thank the crowd for being there. I appreciated how Duff incorporated the crowd into her performance. During one song, she sang into the camera, then pointed it out toward the crowd. She also brought up a few crowd members and had them perform the dance from “With Love.” Many artists praise fans, but she seemed to genuinely mean it.  

The nostalgia was everywhere. She told a story about how a mom told Duff she was her and her daughter’s first concert. She also mentioned how this dated all of us. At one point during the show, she wore a white Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul shirt that her stylist found. (Remember those?) During one costume change, video and image clips played of Duff as a child and teen star. There was even a video of her and a long signing line outside of a Virgin Records store.

After changing into a tan dress, she spoke about how it’s been a shock to her system after not touring for 18 years, but that performing her songs has been so healing. She then mentioned she wouldn’t want to be anywhere but here before performing “Anywhere but Here.” 

At one point, she did a sort of cover of Blink-182s’ “Dammit,” but tweaked a few of the lyrics. The most poignant one she sang was “I guess this is growing up.” It’s just something we all eventually have do, after all. 

On the thought of growing up, she also showed a montage featuring her husband and children. After all, she’s a wife and mom of two now. It was particularly touching to see a video of her with headphones around her neck in a recording booth, talking about how scared and excited she was to be back in. It was so vulnerable and intimate and a reminder that the show was very much in the present despite all the references to the past. 

Right before the show ended, she performed one of her new tracks, “Mature.” The song is about ridiculing a man who’s dating a younger woman and is praising her by saying that she’s so mature for her age. One thing that has gotten better in the last two decades is that men who do this are now made fun of for it.

She also played my favorite song of hers, “Coming Clean.” The high-energy track featured pyro that “rained down” from the ceiling. The track is a quiet-loud-quiet track that is sonically powerful. I loved that song as a teen, and I love it now. Music doesn’t just take us back to the past. Although it certainly can. It’s something we can hold onto when everything around us changes. 

As to why millennial nostalgia is such a thing right now, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because 20 years ago, things seemed less crazy. Social media wasn’t so dominant. Politics wasn’t quite as batshit crazy. The internet was something you only accessed from your home computer and not all around you all the time. Maybe we’re just old enough to crave the past. 

One thing that is undeniable is that nostalgia is a powerful force. The car I currently drive is the same one I drove in high school. It’s one of the only things in my life that’s still the same even after so much time has passed, and I’m more emotionally attached to it than I probably should be. I’m sure I listened to those exact songs that I heard tonight in that car when I drove myself to high school.

I also graduated 20 years ago last month (eek), and I was reminded of that fact when a massive clear, glitter-filled beach ball landed on my head during the closing track, “What Dreams are Made Of.” My own high school graduation ceremony featured beach balls being tossed around, albeit much smaller ones. Butterfly-shaped confetti rained down on the crowd, and I saw plenty of butterfly clips in the crowd’s hair. I owned some of those at one point. Duff thanked everyone and seemed on the verge of tears before she left the stage for the final time. As people filtered out of the venue, some 2000s jams (I know I heard the Black Eyed Peas) were playing in the background. It was all so millennial.