Taylor Swift stands on stage at State Farm Stadium, the lights hitting her leotard. and absorbing the sound of 70,000 fans in front of her.
“I don’t know how to do all this. And the way it makes me feel right now,” she said. “I can’t even say how much I miss you. Because there is no way to say it.”
what swift can spoke Friday night as she kicked off her Eras tour, her first road show since 2018 since the start of the pandemic. Since the release of four separate studio albums Will Go, “Tonight we’re going on an adventure,” she told listeners. “We’re exploring music for the last 17 years, which I’ve been fortunate enough to do. And you were kind enough to take care of it.”
That’s right — that’s how well-known and beloved pop artists tour. And yet, this show feels like a completely new experience. With a whopping 44 tracks from Swift’s 10 studio albums split into chapters Over three hours and 15 minutes, each section has its own outfit and color scheme: a glittery pink leotard. She wore a gown (and matching boots) for the 2019 drama “Lover,” and a gown for the fairytale-obsessed 2010 drama “Speak Now” for part of a concert dedicated to the song “Red.” In 2012’s biggest hit that took her to superstardom, the 33-year-old Swift wore a version of the t-shirt from her “22” music video instead of reading, “There’s not a lot going on right now. ” This message reads: “There’s a lot going on right now” — a subtle but meaningful tweak meant to flatter the attention of many eagle-eyed Swifties in the house.
the best Friday’s show complicates the emotional release associated with a great pop performance.
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Indeed, Friday’s production opened up like the most thorough and refined fanservice. “We have plenty of time to try to sum up how I feel. how much i miss you And how happy I was to meet you,” Swift told the crowd at one point, doing what she could to Settled the sentiments so intense that Ticketmaster failed when tickets for the 52-day tour went on sale last fall. (Swift is scheduled to wrap up the tour with a five-night show at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium in August.)
But the concerts also showcased the talent and versatility that made Swift the most successful singer-songwriter of the hip-hop-defining era. She features wistful acoustic ballads like “Lover” and “Enchanted”. Her voice is high and charming. She ridiculed through sarcastic electro-pop hits like “Look What You Made Me Do,” “You Need to Calm Down” and “The Man,” a final sarcastic commentary on the limited gender roles played on set. designed to look like an office
Accompanied by a band with four backing vocalists. She ducked into the intricate bedroom of the folk sound of her plague duet “Folklore” and “Evermore”, singing “Invisible String” from atop a model cabin in the moss-covered woods. flanked by dancers She was big and bright for the 1-2 of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” in “I Knew You Were Trouble,” then bigger and brighter for the segment dedicated to “ 1989 ” Her most cheerful release, “Midnights,” which broke sales and streaming records when it premiered in October. It was one of the longest sequences of the night, as Swift put together seven gloomy R&B cuts, including “Lavender Haze,” “Midnight Rain,” and the Top 100 “Anti-Heroes”; In each chapter she blurs the edges of her voice. Use it as a texture as well as a description.
Swift’s Eras tour will conclude with five shows at SoFi Stadium in August.
(John Shearer/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Her approach to photo albums inevitably echoed the nostalgia of the audience who grew up with Swift. “Ready to go back to high school with me?” she asks before a melodious translation of “You Belong with Me” from 2008’s “Fearless,” one of the earliest LPs. which she recently rebuilt In a clever campaign to reclaim the financial reward of a song whose owners had changed hands a few times, she later gained access to even more history for “Tim McGraw,” the love-crazy young singer. Her first single as a rural teenage phenomenon. which she performs here on a vertical piano painted with flowers. (The piano is on a small secondary stage. At the end of the runway extending onto the stadium floor In which Swift also plays “Mirrorball” unplugged on a channel where she says there will be a different song every night of the show. travel.)
At its best, Friday’s show brings out the emotional liberation associated with a great pop performance. The highlight of the concert lies at the center of the show’s earnestness through Swift’s epic 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” arriving in 2021 from her re-recording of “Red.” The album “All Too Well” weaves through the devastation of a young romantic relationship with the wisdom of looking back a few years. But on stage here She slams an acoustic guitar while wearing a glittering gown that gives her a witch’s aura. She turned this song into a kind of essay about youth – on the illusion that we allow ourselves to buy in. The never-ending pursuit of happiness
Talk about a lot going on right now: she promised to travel back in her past and instead handed over the dismantling.
