Miss Elliott brings a playful show to TD Garden

The first-time headliner performed her hits for the “Out of This World” tour on Saturday.

Missy Elliott performing for her ‘Out of This World’ tour in Los Angeles July 12, 2024. Courtesy crowdMGMT

Run for cover. Missy Elliott is in the house.

The Queen of Hip Hop landed at TD Garden from a virtual spaceship Saturday night after an opening lineup from her three longtime collaborators, Busta Rhymes, Ciara, and Timbaland.

Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott, 53, is in the midst of a 24-city North American tour — her very first as a headliner. But you wouldn’t have known from her show Saturday night.

Elliott took the stage just after 10 p.m. and performed a tight hour-long set featuring 26 songs that spanned nearly three decades of her game-changing influence on the rap and hip hop scene.

Elliott’s fun and playful performance featured colorful visuals, eccentric costumes, and skilled backup dancers, some of whom were working their first tour, she said.

The set design was fire — and I mean literal fire. When Elliott performed “I’m Really Hot,” flames shot out across the stage. She mounted a suspended platform that rose above the crowd and briefly around the arena for “Gossip Folks.”

While I’d wondered if I’d get to relive my youth of watching Elliott vibe out in an inflatable “trash bag” suit for “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” she instead donned a puffy black outfit with a long, billowing cape. There were more impressive looks throughout the evening however, including a bejeweled spacesuit and old school neon DayGlo streetwear. Elliot’s songs may have been anchored in the nostalgia of decades past, but the show’s costumes from collaborator June Ambros, took the audience on a futuristic journey across space, time, and style.

For “Work It,” she walked around the floor seats reaching her hands out to audience members as she made her way around the stadium. She’d later shout out the Boston Celtics, which earned more screams from the crowd.

One of the more playful moments from the show was watching Elliott don a fuzzy, oversized hat for the last seven songs. She smiled through the occasional struggle of keeping the hat from overtaking her entire head at times while dancing across the stage.

After “Pass That Dutch,” she took a few minutes to chat up her adoring audience, many of whom she’d earlier confirmed were “Day One” fans.

“This is the loudest show,” Elliott said. Thousands of more screams ensued.

After watching Elliott perform her songs several years after their peak in the early 2000s, it’s hard not to be reminded of the influence she’s had on some of today’s top musicians like SZA, BIA, Lizzo, and Cardi B. Plus, few artists have actually influenced how we use language — specifically taking misogynistic profanity and helping reclaim it for women.

There were points throughout the show that felt like a victory lap for Elliott. But it also seemed like this is the version of her we’ve always known — a boundary-pushing artist who shows up to be the pioneer. Her headlining performance in Boston was a reminder that in 2024, Elliott is still the innovator. However she chooses to descend upon us again, alien spaceship or otherwise, we can bet on it being another first.