It’s Been a Long Time Coming…
(Melodramatic’s Version)
Written by Sofia Wallace, Photos by Devyn Wong
“It’s been a long time coming…” were the opening words of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. As the wistful and nostalgic line echoed through all eight levels of the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in a familiar voice, tears of nostalgia and excitement welled in the eyes of over 70,000 swifties, including my own.
Taylor Swift has always been known to make a dramatic entrance, so it was no surprise that the intro and build up to her entrance was one of the most memorable parts of the show. The energy in the stadium was tangible as the music and lights built up. Iconic lines from each Era were heard over an orchestral ambiance of background music that carried Taylor’s indistinguishable sound. Sunset colored fabric billowed through the air, swathing the length of the stage as the instrumental continued to build, until finally, with an eruption of exhilaration from the crowd, Taylor was revealed glittering in pink and blue.
If you’ve been active on social media or stay up to date with news headlines this Summer, you’ve likely heard mention of The Eras Tour. Taylor Swift’s international stadium tour has been breaking records, boosting the economy, and even causing seismic activity equivalent to small earthquakes.
The tour is a Swiftie’s dream: 3 and a half hours of Taylor Swift performing about 45 of her songs live. The expansive setlist covers over 15 years of her music, going all the way back to when her career began in 2006. The music is paired with breathtaking and emotional performances by both Taylor and her incredibly talented dancers and band, immersive visuals, and an impressively engineered stage.
Overall, The Eras Tour was an indescribably memorable production. We attended two nights in Los Angeles, experiencing both the floor seats as well as the bowl seats.
As tens of thousands of people trickled into the stadium, the opening acts took the stage. Each show had two opening performers, which over the course of the whole tour span a variety of genres- from Phoebe Bridgers’ melancholy indie folk taking the East coast leg of the tour, to GAYLE’s alternative rock pop finishing off the tour in LA.
Our personal favorite opening act we saw was a band called HAIM, who preceded Taylor at both of our shows. HAIM is a trio made up of 3 LA-born sisters, who have been making alternative pop music since 2006, and have been close friends with Taylor since 2014. All three were talented guitarists and singers, and excited the crowd with their stage presence.
The band also joined Taylor during the Evermore Era to perform “No Body, No Crime”, a song of Taylor’s that they are featured on. The 4 had a fun onstage chemistry that displayed their friendship to the crowd.
After the openers’ performances came to a close, the true anticipation began. This anticipation had been building from the second we walked into the stadium. As someone who had been vigilantly following the tour since its opening night in Glendale, Arizona, finally seeing that stage with my own eyes felt unreal.
We walked through hundreds of other fans to get to our seats, each donned in an outfit you could tell they spent weeks planning. Almost everyone was wearing some form of sparkle. Not a single arm was bare of friendship bracelets, which swifties have been making and trading with each other since the beginning of the tour.
One of my most memorable moments of the night was being stopped by a little girl wearing a “Shake it Off” music video outfit, and asked to trade friendship bracelets with. The experience made me tear up. It reminded me of being a little girl and connecting with Taylor Swift’s music for the first time.
Once Taylor took stage, she made it clear to the crowd that she was going to take the show one Era at a time, beginning with the “Lover” Era. She spoke to the crowd, baby blue guitar in hand, after the first few songs of the show. Taylor has always emphasized how she encourages artists to explore genres throughout their careers and not just restrict themselves to one specific sound. To Taylor, who has gone from country, to pop, to alternative, back to pop, and just about everything in between, this tour was representative of that belief.
With 10 studio albums, fans were curious to see how Taylor would be able to pay homage to each of her eras sufficiently. Many deliberated over the set list as the tour approached, hoping their favorite songs would be chosen. Overall, it seems that Taylor aimed to make the setlist accessible- by including all of her household name songs that basic level Swifties could sing along to. These songs included “You Belong with Me”, “Love Story”, “Blank Space”, “Anti-Hero”, and many others.
However, she also made sure to mix in the deep cuts and fan favorites, or at least perform certain parts of them. For example, Taylor sang only the bridge of the song “Illicit Affairs”, a lesser known song from the Folklore Era. Though short, this performance had some of the most impressive vocals and visible emotion of the entire show. Both the Folklore and Midnights albums got 7 songs, while some only got 2-4.
If there was one thing I could change about the setlist, it would be switching out some of the top single songs for some less known fan favorites in the red and 1989 eras. These eras had so many hit singles, and these were the only songs performed from them.
Though the setlist remained the same for every show, there was one small section that was left up in the air. The acoustic set features two suprise songs, which could be from any of Taylor’s 10 Eras. One is performed on the guitar, and one of the piano.
We were lucky enough to get to hear two of the songs we were holding out for: “Death by a Thousand Cuts” on the guitar and “You’re on Your Own Kid” on the piano.
Our second night, which happened to be the last show of the US Leg, Taylor performed “New Romantics” after announcing that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be coming out on October 27th, followed by “New Years Day” on the piano.
The surprise songs added a whole new aspect of excitement to the tour, and truly made each show special.
Even with only one stage, Taylor was still able to make each Era distinguishable from the last, in its own magical way. This was partially thanks to the light up bracelets given to each person in the crowd, which light up to the music. Taylor has assigned a color to each era, and the bracelets often lit up corresponding to which Era the show was on. The stage had many moving parts, making the show so much more three-dimensional.
Taylor climbed up the structure of an office building during “The Man” of the Lover set, walked through fake pine trees during “willow” of the Evermore set, and sang from the roof of a mossy wooden cabin during the Folklore Era. She twirled across it in flowy dresses, performed atop stage risers, and dove under the stage and swam the length of it underwater (if you know, you know). Her vocals were incredible, and smoke, confetti, or even flames shot up from the stage as she hit high notes.
On our second night up in the stands, we got a clear view of the visuals that covered the stage itself, which we couldn’t see from the floor seats. Because of these visuals, there is truly no “bad seat” at the Eras Tour.
Taylor’s tour outfits were another memorable part of the show. Each outfit is custom-made designer, and truly embodies the aura of each Era. From the purple hoop-skirt ball gown she wore in the Speak Now Era, to the glittering tassel bodysuits of the Midnights and Lover Eras, each outfit was truly unique.
There were also a couple different variations of each one, switched out show by show. Several of the outfits were reminiscent of past tours, for example, the gold fringe dress of the Fearless Era and the snake-wrapped bodysuit of the Reputation Era.
Overall, The Eras Tour was definitely a highlight of my Summer. Because of the incredible music and production, every second of it felt so magical and surrounding. I think I experienced more emotions in this 3 hour period of time than I did throughout all my nearly 19 years of living.
Everyone in my group and I were all exhausted by the end of the night after dancing and singing at the top of our lungs for the entire show, but if I could go 3 more times, I would. As someone who has been a Taylor Swift fan since I was a little girl, it was so fun and healing in so many ways.
Screaming the lyrics to “Long Live”, alongside my best friends and sisters is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. Taylor is now taking The Eras Tour international, where it will continue until Summer of 2024.
