Photos and words by Oliver Lopena
Having attended at least 1 date on each of her national tours (beginning with her 2009-2010 Fearless Tour), it’s self-evident that we’re ride or die Swifties here at Rockin’ The ‘Burbs. With a 5-year lapse since her Reputation Stadium Tour and cancellation of the planned 2020 Lover Fest, we were overjoyed when Taylor Swift formally announced The Eras Tour last November. A journey through the eras of her entire musical career, we would FINALLY get to see her perform songs from Lover, folklore, evermore, and her latest LP Midnights, along with our favorites from Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation (and maybe Taylor Swift, depending on the night). What’s more, her list of announced openers read like a veritable who’s who of personal favs (including beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, MUNA, and more). However, mere weeks later, the Verified Fan presale debacle ensued resulting in the all-out cancellation of the general public on-sale, dashing the hopes and dreams of many a Swiftie (including myself). But through the merciful intervention of St. Swift, I was fortunate enough to receive a second chance to acquire tickets through the Verified Fan purchase request process and miraculously scored 2 tix for me and the missus (sorry kiddos). Our show was the 2nd of 3 nights at Lincoln Financial Field in Philly, on Saturday, May 13th.
When the day finally arrived, I started it off by making as many “Dear Jawn” friendship bracelets as I could – I knew I wouldn’t end up trading any (because introvert), but I was excited anyway. I then pre-gamed by doing stretches and sticking to a rigorous hydration routine for the next several hours – it was gonna be a marathon of a night, with a 3-hour long/40+ song setlist where I’d be on my feet the entire time. We arrived at The Linc at gate time, early enough to grab some merch and Crabfries without much hassle. Seated in section F8 with a newly acquired Sony RX100 VII in hand, we settled in around 6pm and eagerly awaited for the music to begin.
Opener GAYLE kicked off her brief set at 6:30, capped off with her breakout track “abcdefu”. Up next was a performance from Red (TV) collaborator (and 1/3 of indie supergroup boygenius) Phoebe Bridgers. She opened her set with Stranger in the Alps track “Motion Sickness”, before settling into songs from her Grammy-nominated 2020 LP Punisher. I longed for a boygenius cameo (it already happened once before), but we just got Matty Healy on guitar instead. Bridgers ended her set with the climactic “I Know the End”, accompanied by blaring screams from the crowd during the song’s outro.
Just prior to 8pm, the countdown clock appeared on the big screen behind the stage and a palpable swell of excitement and anticipation filled The Linc. After proclaiming, “my name is Taylor and I was born in 1989”, Swift emerged from the middle of the stage and launched into “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” for the Lover portion of the show. The deafening screaming and singalong began and didn’t let up for the rest of the night. She rounded out the era with “Cruel Summer”, “The Man”, “You Need To Calm Down”, “Lover”, and “The Archer”. It gave us a short preview of what Lover Fest could’ve been – I wish we would’ve gotten “Death By A Thousand Cuts”, but you can’t have it all I suppose. From Reputation, Swift performed “… Ready for It”, “Delicate”, “Don’t Blame Me”, and “Look What You Made Me Do”. The Reputation tracks translated so well to the massive stadium setting and Swift took full advantage of the stage’s effects and lighting.
Up next, she performed Fearless heavy-hitters (“Fearless”, “You Belong With Me”, and “Love Story”), followed by songs from evermore (“’tis the damn season”, “willow”, “marjorie”, “champagne problems”, and “tolerate it”). For “champagne problems”, Swift got behind the keys for the first time of the evening and addressed the crowd about all the “stuff” that happened in the last 5 years (i.e., the pandemic and her prolific 4-album output). “tolerate it” was a haunting and dramatic enactment, with the climax of the song occurring during the bridge where Swift stands on the dining table and declares, “break free and leave us in ruins, took this dagger in me and removed it, gain the weight of you then lose it, believe me I could do it”. While she did dedicate 5 songs to evermore, man did I really want “cowboy like me” on the piano.
Swift recently announced that she’ll be re-releasing Speak Now in July. Perhaps she’ll include more Speak Now tracks on her setlist then, but “Enchanted” has been the sole entry on The Eras Tour thus far. Knowing what was coming, things were about to get real emotional as we entered the Red era of the setlist. After performing “22”, “WANEGBT”, and “I Knew You Were Trouble”, Swift was joined on stage by Phoebe Bridgers for a performance Red (TV) vault track “Nothing New”. Then the big moment came when she performed the 10 minute version of “All Too Well” in all of its glorious and heartbreaking splendor. With Swift lit by 2 spotlights, it ended up feeling like an intimate performance with 70,000 of your closest friends with everyone screaming their lungs out. By this time, I’m exhausted – how is it that we’ve just passed the mid-point of the show?
The game-changing folklore era was up next. Released at the peak of the pandemic, it was a surprise album that marked her first time working with Aaron Dessner (of The National). A relatively new addition to the setlist, she started off with “the 1” perched atop the folklore cabin. Being track 1 of folklore, I remember my first time listening to this song on the midnight of the album’s release and loving the new direction Swift had taken with her sound. “betty”, “the last great american dynasty”, “august”, “illicit affairs”, “my tears ricochet”, and “cardigan” rounded out the era. A particularly memorable moment was when Swift ran across the stage during the bridge of “august” – what an amazing moment that encapsulated the vibe of this song perfectly.
Swift did an amazing job hitting every part of the stage throughout the show, but for the 1989 era she spent a lot of time near our end of the stage. She performed “Style”, “Blank Space”, “Shake It Off”, “Wildest Dreams”, and “Bad Blood”. Apparently, this was the night she yelled at a security guard from the stage in defense of an audience member; however, I was too busy screaming my head off to “Bad Blood” to notice. For her first surprise song, she performed Fearless track “Forever & Always” on acoustic guitar – a birthday request from her friend Lena who was at the show, I assumed it was Lena Dunham (which was later confirmed). Swift then got behind the piano for her second surprise song – a collective gasp was heard from the crowd as she began playing “This Love” from 1989. She then dove into the stage and did a quick wardrobe change to kick off the Midnights era.
For her last stretch of songs, she performed 7 songs from Midnights (“Lavender Haze”, “Anti-Hero”, “Midnight Rain”, “Vigilante Shit”, “Bejeweled”, “Mastermind”, and “Karma”). The confetti and fireworks flew for “Karma”, then Swift and her entourage of dancers left the stage. What, no encore? All said and done, Swift performed 45 songs over 3+ hours. How she does this night after night must be the work of witchcraft, but she clearly does this for the fans. On a post-show high and feeling lucky to have been there, the realization that it’s over sets in and now I’m sad.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) will be released on July 7th, but it’s now available for pre-order in every format you could possibly desire. Keep scrolling below to see more photos from the show.
