During the middle of “All Too Well,” I started to cry. Could not keep it together in the least. turned into a complete disaster. unable to stop sobbing. To be honest, it was embarrassing. I make an effort to be honest with myself, but calling myself a “person who cries at a Taylor Swift show” isn’t how I view myself. And yet, there I was at Lincoln Financial Field, sobbing to myself while lying on the ground.
Even now, I am unable to precisely explain why I am crying. It wasn’t the first time I had heard Lucy Dacus, Taylor’s new friend, sing “Thumbs.” That was a memory-fog black hole that brought up a lot of heavy psychological crap and was emotionally cataclysmic. I don’t have a strong emotional attachment to Taylor Swift’s breakup with Jake Gyllenhaal from years ago. That’s concluded business in my opinion. Something else, this. Maybe with gratitude? a kind of torrent of sensory overload? Just outright reverence for the motherfucking craft? I may not know, but I participated.
My daughter and I were there. The major event was that. Clara has just turned 14. She will soon receive her middle school diploma. Taylor’s music has always been a part of Clara’s life because she was born roughly six months after the release of Fearless. She has used it in her vocabulary before. Clara once responded to a preschooler who was being mean to her by saying, “Someday, I’ll be living in a big ol’ city, and all you’re ever gonna be is mean.” Most of the music I like doesn’t truly interest Clara. Even when we share similar tastes in music (Lana Del Rey, Mitski, Beach Bunny, etc.), Clara has independently discovered these musicians and has her own reasons for liking them.
The Eras Tour is likely something you already know about. You are aware of the Eras Tour even if you don’t want to be. It’s the closest thing to a monocultural musical event that we’ve seen in a while. When Ticketmaster botched the pre-sales of the tickets last year, the situation became into such a controversy that Congress held hearings. Swifties reportedly paid tens of thousands of dollars for tickets on the secondary market. Large numbers of ticketless spectators still gather outside the stadiums for the performances just to sing along.
📹 | A crowd of thousands of fans gathered outside the stadium during night two in Philly #PhillyTSTheErasTour #TSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/nWSKUenYMq
— Taylor Swift Updates (@TSwiftLAMedia) May 14, 2023
The Taylor Swift performances are not like other shows. Here, the PCU “don’t be that guy” rule — the unwritten rule that states you shouldn’t wear a band’s shirt to watch that band — gets reversed. Almost everyone wears or is wearing anything that is somewhat connected to Taylor when they arrive. T-shirts produced by hand abound. The costumes get more extravagant and facetious. I noticed at least one person who was decked out like the Cats role played by Taylor Swift. I find it impossible to imagine having the same level of commitment or self-assurance as Taylor’s admirers. The mood is very different from anything I’ve ever experienced, not even at large stadium events. It’s more like an anime convention or something.
Attendees of Taylor Swift concerts are devoted. I wrote last week about seeing Zach Bryan and the rafters-shaking full-arena singalongs he sparked. Despite the fact that Taylor Swift and the other musician have quite different places in the cultural landscape, a few individuals warned me that I would see something similar at her concerts. Those people have a point. Taylor Swift fans enthusiastically sing along to every song from Dashboard Confessional, and they do it in colossal numbers. Taylor’s fandom functions as an exclusive but friendly community, despite the fact that she is the biggest mainstream pop performer on the planet. It’s amazing to see, for sure.
Clara is more familiar with that culture than I am. I adore Taylor Swift’s music, and I’m sure that by praising her repeatedly on this website, I’ve irritated a lot of the readers. But I’ve never been a part of a fandom, whether it be for Taylor or someone else, and I have no idea what a Swiftie is. Educated me was Clara. She explained to me how fans create complex friendship bracelets based on particular Taylor songs or albums — she had been working on hers for weeks — and then exchange them with random people at the concerts. She explained to me how Swifties have chants they repeat at specific points in songs. (For example, following the “Delicate” entrance, it’s “one, two, three, let’s go bitch!” Although I wasn’t prepared to call Taylor Swift a bitch, that one was loud.) She warned me that if I didn’t wear anything Taylor-related, I would seem like a complete weed. She was accurate.
You understand Taylor Swift when you see her. She strives to earn that kind of admiration. She deserves it. The connection between artist and crowd that struck me when I saw Zach Bryan a few nights before the Taylor event was the talent and charisma needed to write soul-baring, emotive songs and then to facilitate mass-catharsis singalongs of those songs. Phoebe Bridgers, who opened for Taylor, also had that talent, and on Friday she had a few significant singalong moments. Taylor Swift performs that act while flawlessly executing circus acrobatic maneuvers. I could hardly walk after just watching Taylor, I was so exhausted. The following night, Taylor returned to the same stadium and repeated everything.
The Eras Tour’s idea isn’t particularly revolutionary. Taylor’s performance needs a few leaps of faith, such as the notion that folklore and evermore represent separate eras, as most seasoned performers pull from their many albums when they perform live. However, Taylor’s performance isn’t just about the tunes. Each episode’s section is a unique production with unique sets, costumes, color schemes, and aesthetics. Even if those songs don’t strictly beg for it, Taylor and her band have managed to make each of those LPs into a stadium-level extravaganza. I believe the epidemic made Taylor believe she was done performing in stadiums and that she didn’t need to write songs with spectacle in mind when she went all indie-folk. She is instead figuring out how to transform independent folk songs into complete Broadway musical pieces.
In high school, when my classmates were making fun of me, they frequently used the fictitious term “whizjets.” I was too quickly bored to play role-playing games or watch chamber dramas. My ability to focus is terrible. I require whizjets. Some of the best whizjets I’ve ever seen were at Taylor Swift’s live performance. It’s a little silly to be concerned about ruining a stadium show, but I’d prefer to avoid talking about the various Eras Tour spectacles since I’m glad I wasn’t aware of them all beforehand. Although the tickets are pricey, you can see where much of that money is spent when you are actually at the performance. The dancing, the times that seem like David Copperfield magic tricks, the pyro, the lights, the stage with the built-in screens, and the whizjets are all spectacular.Taylor Swift doesn’t require those whizjets, which is kind of funny. Taylor is not a particularly talented dancer or singer. People don’t become followers of a performer because they can pull off faultless Janet Jackson impersonations or because they can belt out powerful vocal runs a la “Don’t Blame Me.” (Taylor’s reputation as a live performer has historically been questionable, but on Friday, she sounded strong.) The songs are what distinguish Taylor Swift. Despite the fact that she has always worked with others, Damon Albarn-style critics occasionally nonetheless voice their disapproval of her songwriting abilities. Taylor has released ten albums at this time, and despite switching between genres and stages of her life, she has managed to maintain her core identity. People pay attention because it’s clear that the author has a voice.
The brief two-song interlude where Taylor sings songs that aren’t on the setlist every night—the surprise songs portion of her performance—gets more attention than the remainder of the event. Taylor is aware that her entire set could be exactly like that, I’m sure of it. The whizjets are unnecessary for her. Even after all these years, she could still pack stadiuShe might eventually do that. However, Taylor also has a very specific vision for her own pop success, and that vision entails a ton of glitz. She can’t even pause singing during a three-hour performance where every detail has been meticulously planned out in order for her to yell at a security officer. (For the record, I had a terrific encounter with the security personnel from Philadelphia. I’m hella tall, so they made an exception so I could stand in the aisle without obstructing anybody else’s view.)ms by performing her songs with her band, varying the show from night to night, and making last-minute adjustments.
Despite Taylor’s performance’s staggering scale, she never loses focus and neither do her songs. Although Taylor puts a remarkable amount of effort and thought into her show, her natural grace is just as impressive. You must be a unique kind of person to stand
in front of that many people and accept their admiration. Taylor smiles. She exudes a sense of appreciation and pride that never wanes into phony meekness. She never presents her show as a chore. Instead, she exudes an overwhelming sense of excitement as she ascends.Early on Friday, Taylor referred to the performance as her “hometown show.” That’s a little too far-fetched. A little more than an hour and a half west of Philadelphia, in West Reading, Taylor grew up. But because there isn’t an NFL stadium in West Reading, this was the closest she could get. You typically have to be profoundly strange to become a major music star. Taylor Swift is certainly a strange person in some respects, but she probably would have the same reaction you or I would have if we ever done anything to make so many people pleased to see her if we ever saw that crowded hometown-like stadium. Maybe Taylor puts on such an elaborate show because she feels like she has to justify all that.
The Taylor Swift concert serves as fan service in many ways. Although she opens and finishes with deep cuts, she sings most of her biggest hits. You receive a small light-up LED bracelet as soon as you enter the stadium, and these wristbands flash in intricate patterns throughout the performance as another attempt to make the crowd feel involved. Taylor has always supported the most extreme aspects of fandom, including online community building, sing-alongs, and costumes. The show doesn’t simply feel like a show as a result. It resembles being fully immersed in something.The best songs by Taylor are specialized. They talk about flings, splits, or sentiments of awkward unfitness. She continues to turn them into significant, global anthems. Her readiness to reflect back to others their emotions and experiences is what “mirrorball” is all about. The most moving part of Friday’s performance for me was seeing my daughter, who has grown up listening to these songs, scream along with her entire chest. That’s what made me cry. This is why I sobbed.
I’m going to enter this paragraph’s tiny spoiler zone. It began to snow as “All Too Well” was playing, and I frantically wiped away my tears before too many people saw me. Of course, it wasn’t snow. Taylor recalls the first snowfall and how it glistened as it fell while jets all around the stadium fired white confetti into the air in her song. You could hear a sort of collective gasp as the confetti filled the air as it fell silently and slowly. When you’re going through a difficult internal personal issue, it’s unusual to look up and see fake snow all around.Although I’ve attended numerous performances and saw plenty of confetti cannon action, I’ve never felt transported to another world. I got to experience the enchantment of this whizjet with my child. That sort of situation? That is the main focus. I’ll never forget it.
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