Some things can only be measured by their size once it is truly seen in person. You know the Earth is big but we will never truly be in awe unless we see it from space in orbit. We know the Pyramids are a great phenomenon in architecture, but we can never truly be in the wonder unless seen in person. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour will arguably go in down in history as one of the biggest tours ever, as many fans waited at times for days to purchase tickets online. You know stadium shows are big with great production, but you just had to be there to truly be in awe and constantly mind-blown at what Swift has done and brought to her fans.
Before even entering the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA, the atmosphere was vibrant and positive, resembling that of a cosplay convention fans of various anime shows or video games attend dressed as their favorite characters. Lots of work went into some of these outfits representing their take on some of Swift’s albums and eras. This area must have been massive fans of the Lovers era because many were clad in pastel pink and blue dresses or vibrant pink skirts and tops. Fans of “Reputation” and in general could hold a snake while walking around as a man was outside allowing fans to hold massive Boas around their necks for photos. The energy wasn’t just something to be built up and released once the concert got going, the energy was happening outside the walls.
We arrived inside a little late due to the crazy amount of traffic and heard the end of Gracie Abrams set, which was someone I was personally excited about. Despite missing most of her set, she sounded great with what we were able to catch, and highly encourage everyone to arrive early to support her and stream her music. She’s truly talented and will be a bigger name one day. We were able to watch Beebadoobee, someone I also was stoked on. Her 2020 album Fake It Flowers was high on my year-end albums list, and constantly on repeat. She played lots of songs from that record including Care which if you’re into that mid-00s angsty grunge rock, she’s 100% for you. It was her last night on the tour and she thanked everyone and Taylor for having her out. These are two artists I loved already going into the show and again highly encourage everyone to give them a listen.
After they performed, the clock struck 8 pm and one of the most elegant and beautiful openings to a concert proceeded to happen. Massive peacock-styled feathers in pastel colors were carried across the stage and once coming together, they split and Taylor Swift began what was one of the most constant mind-blowing performances I’ve ever seen.
Before beginning the official era journey, she also played the song Archer in her prelude songs, which have not been able to be played live due to the 2020 pandemic.
When the eras did start, she did begin with the Fearless album performing such as the title track’s name and You Belong To Me. This era then morphed into one of the most enchanting set designs of the night, the Evermore era, which featured one of the most emotional moments of the night.
The song Marjorie is a song about her grandmother who essentially got Swift into music and was a prolific opera singer in her own right. She wrote the song after she passed as a tribute and during the performance, the stadium filled up with fans holding their lights on their phones up, illuminating the dimly lit building. This moment brought her to tears and made her emotional, as no one was asked to do this. The crowd cheered, before going into Champagne Showers, she had some technical issues and she continuously thanked the fans for their support. It was one of the most beautiful interactions, in that moment, she was human, and the room was human.
The song Tolerate It was one of the best moments due to the acting between her and one of her dancers. A long table was set in a minimalist house as she performed and sang to the actor and he playing the passive boyfriend, ignored her, blew off her advances, and just sat there in his own world sipping a drink. You were almost forced to dislike him for the way he was portraying the character.
She then moved into the Reputation era which you can see the opening of below:
The huge wall display of boxes of different versions of her was absolutely amazing and kept blowing my mind with how detailed everything was in the live show.
The Red era began and she mentioned that she didn’t know what to expect when she went back to redo her records and how they would be received. She thanked the fans because those versions she learned surpassed the originals which led to her performing the popular Taylor’s Version of All Too Well. The building screamed and then went silent as they began to sing along to the nearly ten-minute-long song.
The most enchanting part of the show was the Folklore set. It had a mossy cottage she would be in various parts of performing. This record and the next era, 1989, are my personal two favorites of her discography. I was in complete awe of the set designs in the background with the oceans and clouds that would appear and take over the stage. 1989 has a personal connection to me that I was going through when I first listened to it so it was a personal moment to hear those songs live and reflect back, much like how this whole concert fit into a personal time frame of a similar situation as well.
Before going into the Midnights era, Taylor performed her two secret songs of the night which fittingly included High Infidelity, referring to the concert date, and a piano-driven performance of Gorgeous, in which she asked the crowd about some lyrics that she forgot and began the song over. She also noted that it’s become a massive thing with the secret songs that fans have begun to track and keep updates on which songs she’s performed similar to how stats for sports are recorded. She loved it and mentioned how awesome that was.
To conclude the evening, Taylor Swift began to perform her most recent era, Midnights. It was just as beautiful and enchanting as the opening to the concert, with a performance of Midnight Rain which you can watch below:
I only wished Maroon was part of this part as it is one of my favorites from the record, however, it was another mind-blowing section of the show from a production standpoint. This era took a sexy and sultry turn when she performed Vigilante Shit coming out with a chair and embracing her feminity and sexuality dancing around and on the chair. The crowd went absolutely wild during this performance as she exuded confidence the whole time. The ending concluded with Karma and a shower of fireworks shooting from the stage and surrounding rigs on the edges of the floor seating concluding with a rain of confetti, all colored differently to represent her eras.
Where were you April 29th? We know where we were. It was a true spectacle and a historic show from a historic and strong artist. We can’t wait to see what Taylor Swift does next.
