With her ‘Eras’ tour, Taylor Swift delivers on ‘grand adventure’ promise
Take 44 songs from a catalog created over more nearly two decades, toss in some amazing lighting, effects and staging, sprinkle in dancers, acrobats, bicyclists and a superstar singer-songwriter, put it all in front of 60,000 or so screaming fans on consecutive nights, and you have the ingredients for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour stop this past weekend at Allegiant Stadium.
The 33-year-old, who made Las Vegas the second stop on her tour, sang, spun tales, danced and played the guitar and piano throughout her three-plushour set, all to the delight of the throngs of “Swifties,” most of whom had to fight through the morass of an overloaded Ticketmaster system that kept them online for hours while hoping against hope to score seats for one of the most-coveted concerts to hit Las Vegas.
The headliner did not disappoint her fans.
Everything about Friday night’s concert was a hit with them — and the artist was enamored from the get-go with the loud and lingering ovations she received.
“You’re making me feel powerful,” she told the deafening crowd after opening the concert with “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince.” “You’re making me feel like I’m the first woman to ever headline Allegiant Stadium, but I won’t be the last. … Basically, what I’m trying to say is, ‘You’re making me feel like I’m the man!’”
Before launching into her fifth song, “Lover,” Swift laid out for the audience what would take place over the course of the night: “We’re about to go on an adventure, one era at time.”
And an adventure it was, with Swift pulling material from 10 of her albums, including the four she’s recorded and released since she last hit the road for her “Reputation” tour in 2018: “Lover,” “Folklore,” “Evermore” and “Midnights.”
With a commanding stage presence and few breaks during the marathon show, Swift ingratiated herself with those in attendance, performing hits old and new.
An early audience favorite was her 2009 tune “You Belong With Me” — the one with the video of her pining for the high school football star who is enamored with the girl who wears “high heels, I wear sneakers. She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.”
It was just one of a cavalcade of songs that kept the audience on its collective feet and in a frenzy throughout the night.
Tunes from the “1989” era— “Style,” “Blank Space,” a wildly spirited “Shake It Off,” “Wildest Dreams” and “Bad Blood,” were among a night of highlights.
The many sets throughout the evening were something to behold. During her “Evermore” era, Swift sat at a moss-covered piano seemingly dwarfed by the giant roots of a gargantuan tree. She said she had dreamed of being able to play “Champagne Problems” to a live audience and did just that. At song’s end, she sat at the piano bench and flashed a beaming smile as the crowd gave a loud, extended — really extended — ovation.
“Excuse me. What? … I’m so in love with this crowd,” she said, tapping her mic in utter disbelief. “What do I do? What do I do?”
She answered her own question by continuing with a night that for those in attendance will not be forgotten anytime soon.
That included her two-song special acoustic set, led off by “Our Song.” Swift said she was playing it after being requested by Filipino-english artist Beabadoobee, who was making her debut as one of the concert’s opening acts. Swift penned the song for her ninth-grade talent show and released it on her self-titled debut album.
She followed “Our Song” up with the live debut of “Snow on the Beach,” a new collaboration with artist Lana Del Rey. Swift was quick to point out that she was performing the song solo on this night — “You’re stuck with me; I do not have guests at this show.” But she did give Del Rey a huge shout out for her newly released album, “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.” “It’s just extraordinary,” Swift said of her friend’s new release. “I just think that she’s the best that we have.”
It was a sincere gesture toward Del Rey that will go far among the Swifties in Las Vegas and beyond.
Sincerity, genuineness and likeability are among Swift’s most endearing qualities, and on this night she displayed them in abundance, and the audience appropriately saluted her.
She is a talent worthy of the hype that follows her wherever she goes. With all due respect, on this night Taylor Swift was the man.