The Taylor Swift Concert Changed Me As A Person
I know what I'm about to say may seem dramatic. I know some people think this was just another concert, just another famous artist on a big stage, just another crowd of fans. I'm here to tell you that you're wrong.
The Eras Tour is a show unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of. As I broke down in my blog last week, this tour is different from all of Taylor Swift's other tours. She plays snippets from her entire catalog, and inside that stadium, it feels like we're traveling through the journey of HER life, alongside her. It's extremely nostalgic. On top of that? Every person in the building knows every word, to every song. The energy is out of this world, and its...THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO DESCRIBE IT....magical.
If you're avoiding "spoilers" (lol so insane) definitely stop reading now because I'm about to break down the whole setlist by Era.
As a Chosen One, I was lucky enough to be attending Night 1 in East Rutherford, NJ. Taylor opened the show saying she had been DREAMING about Night 1 at Metlife, a traditionally amazing crowd, and that she had a ton of surprises in store for us. BOY DID SHE!
Let's start at the top:
LOVER ERA - Miss Americana, Cruel Summer, The Man, You Need To Calm Down, Lover, The Archer.
12/12. Opening with Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince and the "it's been a long time comin'" lines, PERFECTION. During Cruel Summer she stopped performing for a second to announce that the first BIG bridge of the night was coming, and we all better get ready to scream it as loud as we can. We did. Taylor had a new never before seen outfit for this. I cried during every song.
FEARLESS ERA - Fearless, You Belong With Me, Love Story
SOBBED during Fearless. She threw up the heart, did the spin, the crowd went wild. YBWM and Love Story basically morph into the same song for me at this point, so this was basically the cutie girlie section of the show where we all acted like cutie girlies together. 10/10.
EVERMORE ERA - Tis the Damn Season, Willow, Marjorie, Champagne Problems, Tolerate It
THANK GOD Mother is making sure that all of the albums we've never heard live get their shine. Evermore is top tier and she picked the best of the best tracks. After Champagne Problems, the crowd gave a standing ovation for 3 minutes. She was wearing a new gorgeous dress for us at Night 1. During Marjorie, an emotional song about her grandmother, the entire stadium threw up their phone flashlights out of respect. There was a kitchen table/relationship skit going on during Tolerate It. Truly unbelievable. 15/15 cried during every song, screamed during Champagne Problems.
REPUTATION ERA - Ready For It, Delicate, Don't Blame Me, Look What You Made Me Do
Total whiplash going from the pain in the Tolerate It performance right into a full scale lights and pyrotechnics show. This section was without question the best visually for a stadium, ALL hits and all made for the environment. The lights during Don't Blame Me made the entire thing feel like a religious experience. My soul went missing somewhere in the midst of all this. 11/11
SPEAK NOW ERA - Enchanted
Wow. It sort of sucks that she only performs one Speak Now song, but as most of us know, it's likely because at the beginning of the tour, she still didn't have the proper rights to rerecord the songs yet. Rumor has it, every time she performs a song from one of the albums she hasn't re-released yet, she has to pay that rat fuck Scooter Braun. She made the right choice in Enchanted, emerging in one of the most beautiful princess dresses I've ever seen (new to the tour!) and singing the FUCK out of it. 16/16 potential to be the performance of the night.
RED ERA - 22, We Are Never Getting Back Together, I Knew You Were Trouble, All Too Well (10 Min Version)
I'm not a Red girl so I had planned to pee during this section - WRONG! 22 came on and I felt like I was 22. She's such a good performer and the whole crowd gets BUMPING every time a new era starts, it's really hard to think of anything else but "dance and sing." I ended up going during WANGBT, getting back with plenty of time before the main event - All Too Well 10 min version. For those who don't know/have forgotten, in November of 2021 with the re-release of Red, Taylor also released an extended version of one of her most popular songs. 10 minutes worth of music. I'm not exaggerating - no one did anything but sing every word to the entire song from the first chord. It was out of this world. For an entire fanbase to relearn one of her most classic songs, 4+ more stanzas, is insane. 18/18, for ATW alone. I almost passed out.
FOLKLORE ERA - The 1, Betty, The Last Great American Dynasty, August, Illicit Affairs, My Tears Ricochet, Cardigan
Mother brought it FULL ON for us with the Folklore set. I'll go as far as to say the Folklore album was the true catalyst to this new version of her fame, the real "resurgence" of her career that showed her range while also capturing the minds and souls of a whole new demographic. The real star of the scene during this set was the switch up between August and Illicit Affairs, where she dropped to the ground and sang only the IA chorus, with so much emotion I think I blacked out. Never screamed so loud. DON'T CALL ME KID, DONT CALL ME BAYYYYYBYYYYY LOOK AT THIS GODFORSAKEN MESS THAT YOU MADE MEEEEEE. 20/20.
1989 ERA - Style, Blank Space, Shake It Off, Wildest Dreams, Bad Blood
1989 set brought the fucking house down. I've always been a big fan but seeing these songs performed live was, of course, on another level. Black Space had the stage covered in CGI Taylors dancing in unison with the real Taylor, and Bad Blood had so much fire the temperature in the stadium spiked. Loved it, wished there were maybe a couple replacements but…still 10/10.
SECRET SONGS
Here is where the stakes were high. Every concert, Taylor does 2 "secret songs," deep cuts from her catalog that aren't repeated again after she's played them. They're both acoustic, one on the guitar and one on the piano. As a Chosen One on N1 MetLife, after being told we were getting TREATS…we got the following:
- Music video premiere of Karma featuring Ice Spice
- GETAWAY CAR featuring JACK ANTONOFF (!!!!!)
- MOTHERFUCKING MAROON!
I was speechless. We were her favorites, she gave us everything. 30/30.
MIDNIGHTS ERA - Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero, Midnight Rain, Vigilante Shit, Bejeweled, Mastermind, Karma
As her most recent album, I love that Taylor jam packed the end of the show with a ton of songs from Midnights. Lavender Haze and Anti Hero were great bops, Midnight Rain was visually stunning with an umbrella dance and a mid-song outfit change, but Vigilante shit had people on their knees for Taylor as she performed a borderline burlesque routine. I've never seen so many jaws on the floor from men who are surprised that she is, in fact, HOT. She closed out the show by bringing out Ice Spice herself, performing the brand new remix of Karma. 13/13.
It's taken me almost a full week to be able to recap this night. I'm deep in the serotonin withdrawals now and I'm not sure I'll ever feel so high again. I didn't even drink or do drugs. I was high on the atmosphere, on the emotion behind Taylor Swift's music and lyrics. The entire night is only what I can describe as a cathartic experience, top to bottom. I know it may seem strange to feel so passionate about a concert or a musical artist, but I don't care.
If you were there, you get it.