In a world of internet critics, Taylor Swift sure knows a thing or two about internet trolls. Since the TicketMaster sale back in November my feed has been nonstop about the Era's Tour.
Is it worth the hype? Is it worth the money? Is it worth the war to get tickets?
The short answer is Yes. The long answer is the rest of this article.
I have been a personal Taylor Swift fan since I was a middle schooler listening to "Speak Now" and screaming along with "Fearless" in my room as many other girls of my age did.
This was my very first time seeing Taylor.
As most of the readers here know, I work many shows in different genres and have seen every production from small to large.
This three and a half hour show was the most incredible and well put together production I have ever witnessed. The change over times between Gayle to Phobe Bridges to Miss Swift was the most beautiful thing to watch. They moved like clockwork and seeing a crew work like a well oiled machine brought a tear to my eyes. With 30,000 fans standing outside of Lincoln Financial Field, brought the attendance from outside and inside to almost 70k.
This show is broken into her different Era's, opening with the "Lover" era Cruel Summer is the most incredible show opener she could've picked.
"Fearless" was up next with the most nostalgia featuring "You Belong with Me" and "Love Story.
"Evermore" set up next being one of the pandemic records and one of my personal favorites, the entire scene for "Willow" a song about love feeling like casting a spell was the some of the best theatrics of the night. Another underrated performance of this specific era is "Tolerate It". Taylor literally acts out setting up a table and then destroying it while singing to one of her male dancers, incredible.
The "Reputation " and "Speak Now" Era's run by sort of quick with a total of five songs combined. I'm assuming since Taylor is still in the Re-Recording process (I'll touch on that in my ending) that's why she kept these two so short.
The "Red" Era is another one of her re-recorded albums and from how Taylor looked, it seemed to be one of her favorite Era's. The 10 minute version of "All Too Well" was the most incredible part of this set and feeling the entire stadium shake from the sound was insane.
"Folklore' being my personal favorite era, features a tree house of her singing on top of it. "Illicit affairs " hearing that bridge live and the power Taylor has in her voice was one of the bucket list.
From watching her a top of a tree house singing "The One" to running around during "August" this set was the most airy and open part of the show.
Going into the "1989" era she played all of her hits from "Style" to "Wildest Dreams" "Blank Space " and "Shake It Off".
My favorite part of her show has been the "surprise song" part of her set where she does two songs on acoustic and piano that change every night. She doesn't repeat songs unless they are off her latest record "Midnights".
For my show Night two in Philadelphia she did "Forever and Always" from Fearless and "This Love" from 1989. The crowd lost their minds waiting to see what she was going to okay.
The show closed with the "Midnights" era, the "Lavender Haze" clouds spinning around Taylor was such a great set opener.
The choreography for "Vigilante Sh*t" gave me "Chicago " the musical vibes. If you know, you know.
Midnights ending with "Karma" and a huge firework display was a great ending to a incredible show.
I can't imagine the amount of personal work Taylor had to put in to prepare to perform for three and a half hours. That's a lot of gym sessions.
As I mentioned earlier in this article Swift annouced plans to re-record her first six albums in the summer of 2019, in the wake of Scooter Braun purchasing her catalog without her involvement. So far she has released "Red (Taylor's Version)" and "Fearless (Taylor's Version). "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" is due out July 7th, judging from the internet buzz all the Swifties are ready for this drop.
Taylor might get the hate that most people in her position do, but you can not disagree that she is a incredible business woman and has the ability to draw out people in masses.
Amazing show Taylor, this tour is brilliant.