Taylor Swift is selling a fantasy
The pop star tapped into secret, stifled feeling of girlhood at the first of her four Sydney The Eras shows.
At this point, most of you will have heard that Taylor Swift puts on a great live show.
The best in the world, some – like the 81,000 that flocked to Accor Stadium in Sydney on Friday night – would argue. Swift’s The Eras Tour, currently in Sydney for a four-show stint, is a concert of preposterous ambition. Over three-and-a-half hours – a length we tend to associate with veterans like Bruce Springsteen, or, if you’re unlucky, Green Day – the 34-year-old pop star makes her way through 44 songs from nine of her albums (her eponymous 2006 debut is left out).
If you’re thinking “isn’t that what artists typically do at concerts? Play songs from their back catalogue” – there’s no fault in your logic. But Swift is an artist that possesses the rare ability to make everything she does “a moment,” and you’d be hard-pressed to name another live show that executes the premise with such spectacle.
A Taylor Swift concert does not start on show day. It starts in the months-long lead-up. There’s the life-sapping process of acquiring tickets; the ugly admin of booking flights and accommodation; the hundreds of hours spent meticulously hand-embroidering and bejewelling outfits and making friendship bracelets.
When Eras day finally comes, the concert starts from the moment you step your cowboy boot-clad foot out the door. You’re walking up the street to your local train station, giving knowing nods to other tasselled, sequinned fans.
Then you’re at Central Station, and there are purple balloons everywhere, ‘Love Story’ is blasting through the foyer, and Transport NSW workers are jollily welcoming you aboard the “Tay Tay express.” In the heaving, sweaty carriage, there’s nervous chatter, and occasionally, eruptions of sing-alongs. A young girl, who couldn’t have been older than six, noticed I didn’t have a friendship bracelet, and asked her mother if she could give me one of hers.
The first night of Swift’s Sydney stint got off to a shaky start when fans were forced to evacuate the stadium floor over warnings of a looming lightning strike. Thousands anxiously loitered around the venue, mingling with blink-182 fans – the pop-punk band was at Qudos Bank Arena next door – some of whom were donning the same, unmistakable shade of Mac’s Ruby Woo red lipstick, as Swifties.
Relief came when everyone was ushered back inside the venue. However, the weather-induced delay meant that Swift’s support act, Sabrina Carpenter, did not get to perform her set. But more on that later.
As the eerily empty stadium filled up, the deafening screams began. Everybody on the floor stood up on their chairs to face the back of the stadium, waving and yelling “I love you,” and “welcome”. This could only mean one thing: Travis Kelce was in the building.
The Kansas City Chief’s tight end – but, more importantly, in the context of this concert, Swift’s boyfriend – waved to the audience from under the VIP Marquee in the center of the stadium floor.
Kelce wasn’t the only celebrity sighting. The American pop star – and, uh, rumoured inspiration for Swift’s 1989 hit ‘Bad Blood’ – Katy Perry was there, standing alongside British singer Rita Ora, and her husband, the Thor director Taika Waititi.
At about 7.45 pm, Swift took to the stage. One cannot understate just how deafening the noise from the crowd was – all banshee-shrieks, hollering, knee-slapping, and foot-stamping. You could quite literally feel the earth rumble.
It has been six years since Swift was last in the country for her Reputation tour, and she’s put out four albums, Lover, Folkmore, Evermore, and Midnights – and a handful of album re-recordings – so this was a homecoming of epic proportions. But, judging by the noise when Swift asked if this was anyone’s first time seeing her, the overwhelming response from the audience suggested that for the majority, it was indeed their induction to the Swift live universe.
From the moment Swift ascended, the show went off like a cannon, as she breathlessly made her way through nine of her albums (or “eras”). Much has been said about her stamina and showmanship, but it’s a marvel to witness in the flesh. To paraphrase ‘Shake It Off,’ – she never misses a beat.
Each era was delineated by momentous sets – like the whimsical cottage for her pandemic-era album folklore – and different costumes, including two sparkly bodysuits, a Cinderella ball gown, two earthy dresses, a one-legged snake suit, and yes, the Fedora from the ‘22’ music video.
There is not a single fault to a live Swift show, and in many ways, it feels more like a painstakingly rehearsed Broadway show than a concert. For those that like a little randomness to their live shows, the experience is uncanny. But, it must be said, the production’s sleekness was never at the expense of the show’s hard-won feeling of intimacy.
Swift has a rare knack for making everybody – even those way up in the nosebleeds – feel “seen.” With the assistance of some expert camera work, her eyes are constantly darting to – and winking at – every nook of the stadium. You can hear when fans feel as if she is looking directly at them.
Though the show is not entirely without its surprises. There is, of course, the “surprise song” section, in which Swift performs two acoustic songs, based on what she describes as, the audience’s “vibe.”
First up was the 1989 fan-favourite ‘How You Get The Girl,’ on acoustic guitar. Before she launched into the second song, she took a seat at the piano and told fans she had a special announcement to make.
Swift unveiled yet another version of her upcoming album The Tortured Poets Department, titled The Albatross - complete with a limited bonus track of the same name.
She proceeded to invite Carpenter up on stage, who, in Swift’s words, “heroically sacrificed her show, which I think is a crime against Sydney.”
The pair, sat side-by-side on the piano, performed a mash-up of the evermore deep-cut ‘Coney Island’ and Swift’s Fearless single ‘White Horse,’ which the 14-time Grammy winner explained was a favourite of Carpenter’s, and that the 24-year-old singer had covered the song on YouTube when she was nine.
Most of Swift’s albums – with the exception of evermore, which was perhaps too subdued for the stadium setting – fare better live than they do in recordings. Reputation, is her cringiest record by a long shot, but live it’s transformed into a bombastic, swaggering spectacle.
It’s hard to describe what it is exactly that has made Swift the biggest pop star on the planet. Here is a 34-year-old woman who still sings songs about princes, and riding dragons and dances like all of us girls who stumble home from a night out and force our boyfriends to watch us perform ‘Wuthering Heights.’ And yet, you can’t help but get swept up in the emotion.
Perhaps it’s because she’s a superstar that does not make people feel bad about themselves. An artist who goes on interludes about being a “lonely millennial woman covered in cat hair, drinking white wine like it’s my job.” Sure, she’s a billionaire with a 5’9 pilates-toned frame, but somehow, she exudes an everywoman quality.
What she taps into is a kind of secret, stifled feeling of girlhood. The sort of delusions you had when you were young, and had watched The Secret Garden, and pottered around your backyard like you were a sickly neglected Mary Lennox.
While introducing her folklore era, Swift went on an interlude about her headspace when writing the album – in the thick of the Covid pandemic. In which she explained that during that period, she imagined she was “an elegant Victorian woman wondering through the woods, collecting feathers to make into quills.” It’s the stuff of fantasies, but it’s a strange kind of magic.
