Listening with Lisa: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
| Behind each lyric of Taylor’s song is a novel of underlying meaning. Listening… unpacking… absorbing her endless stream of metaphors and messages has put me in an everlasting state of awe. |
I am happy to we were first in line. My brain feels melted… not from waiting hours in the beating 90 degree heat, but from witnessing the greatest performer of pop music: Taylor Swift. My sister, dad, brother, and I trekked to Tampa last weekend and I still feel dehydrated.
The Eras Tour. There are a million ways to describe the brilliance of the show I saw in Tampa, yet I’m struggling to put them into sentences.
Have you ever been so dumbfounded by an experience that the English language doesn’t seem like a sufficient medium to explain what happened? That’s me. It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.
Three hours, 17 years of music, and 70,000 fans with each their own insane story of how they wound up at the Raymond James Stadium for Taylor Swift’s concert last Saturday.
Orange rays lingered from the setting sun, making the perfect setting for Taylor to open with her witty, fun, summer album Lover. Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince, The Man, and Cruel Summer simply wouldn’t fit under a black sky and shining stars. We let loose, chanted, and danced, welcoming the rest of the show.
Behind each lyric of Taylor’s song is a novel of underlying meaning. Listening… unpacking… absorbing her endless stream of metaphors and messages has put me in an everlasting state of awe.
Although I may be biased as a musician, no medium of communication compares to the language of music. What visual effects for a concert could possibly suffice? Well, the transforming stage did the music justice.
Slowly growing green trees emerged from the back of the stage for ’tis the damn season, creating a forest for Taylor to elegantly tell her story of reuniting with a lover from her hometown.
From the slithering snakes of Reputation, to blue water for Taylor to swim through, to a forest cabin that Taylor imagined herself living in while writing Folklore, the stage put us in the trace of Taylor’s thoughts. It portrayed the places she put herself in when creating the characters in her songs, whether they were depicted from her own experience, or mere fabrications from her mind.
Red, Taylor’s 2012 masterpiece of an album, has always been sentimental to me. Released when I was in elementary school, Red was the first album I purchased on iTunes on my iPod Touch. State of Grace, Stay Stay Stay, and Treacherous were a few of my favorite songs to sing while riding my bike.
When the stage morphed from a meadow of purple flowers to a red so vibrant I wished I brought sunglasses, I warned my dad next to me that if I hit him by accident from dancing, I was sorry. I simply could not control the power that 22, I Knew You Were Trouble, or We Are Never Getting Back Together would have over my mind, body, and soul.
Taylor asked if we could spare ten minutes, and we all knew what was coming next. Putting the cap on the Red era was arguably Taylor’s best ballad to date: All to Well (10 minute Version). Standing in the middle of the diamond-shaped stage with an acoustic guitar and microphone, Taylor didn’t need elaborate effects or dancers to tell this story. All Too Well tells its own one million stories.
This was my favorite part of the concert. I could have listened to Taylor play the ten minute ballad over and over again.
Something had to bring my heart rate down from the overwhelming emotion the Red era took out of me… and came Folklore.
Folklore is my sister Anna’s favorite Taylor Swift album. In a nutshell, Anna could write an encyclopedia on Taylor Swift. All night, her hands were either fist bumping along, swaying left to right, or glued to her cheeks in admiration. The one thing that made me more happy than actually seeing Taylor Swift in the flesh was getting to share the experience with Anna.
In the weeks leading up to the concert, Anna spent most of her free time hand making beaded bracelets with Taylor’s album titles to trade at the concert. Before Taylor hit the stage, we marched up and down the stadium stairs finding other Swifties for Anna to exchange with.
Ever since we left Raymond James Stadium, Anna has been searching high and low for how we could get tickets to another show.
Near the end of the concert, Taylor plays two “surprise songs” that aren’t on the setlist– one on acoustic guitar, one on piano. Although I was pulling for Stay Stay Stay and The Way I Loved You, I was in no way disappointed by Taylor’s choice to play Mad Woman with special guest Aaron Dessner.
When she finished the performance with Aaron, Taylor stepped to the front of the stage and said a few words to us. She thanked us for being her fans and allowing her to do what she loves: write music. Taylor said she couldn’t believe how crazy we were dancing or how loud we were singing.
“You’re doing the most, which is the only amount I have respect for,” said Taylor before she introduced the second surprise song, Mean.
In that moment, I gulped a gasp so incredibly massive I nearly choked.
When Anna and I were considering our top choices for the surprise songs, Mean didn’t cross either of our minds. How? I don’t know. If there was a song that could speak for my entire playlist as an elementary school girl, it was this one.
The three minutes I spent singing and dancing to Mean were just as amazing as the ten I spent during All Too Well.
Midnights, Taylor’s most recent album, brought the Eras show to a close. From the moment she started singing Lavender Haze, I felt a bittersweet feeling. Anti-Hero, Midnight Rain, and Karma were the songs bringing the show to its end. I didn’t want it to end. Three hours of music and I felt I could be there, in that arena, forever.
Before going to the Eras tour, I admired Taylor Swift and everything she provides to music and songwriting. But after witnessing such greatness, I feel changed as a musician. In the few days after the concert, it’s hard to listen to Taylor’s music because I’m still mourning the end of the concert.
I’ve struggled with this recount of the show. I remember every detail, yet the whole night is a blur. Now, this may be because of the 15+ hour day, 90 degree heat, and emotional tole that took over me on April 15. Or, I’ve simply been hypnotized by Taylor’s brilliance.
If you have the opportunity to go to the Eras Tour, take it! You will not be disappointed. And, if you’re not already infatuated with Taylor Swift, this concert may change your life.
