For weeks now, I've been prone to bursting into tears at the drop of a hat at the thought of Taylor Swift bringing her massive Eras Tour to a close in Vancouver.
Hearing the lyrics "it's been a long time coming," has sent shivers down my spine, knowing it was the opening song of the epic 3.5-hour show. I practically skipped through BC Place, shedding the usual press conference decorum because the subject at hand was Swift. One look at a promo poster had me squealing in delight.
That's right: I self-identify as a Swiftie.
Like many, I, too, lost "The Great War" of November 2023 and did not get a code to try to queue up for tickets to the Vancouver show. Or the Toronto shows, or some European shows I tried for.
I held out hope for a full year that I could ask for and be granted media tickets.
So, what you're about to read can basically be summed up as my "Wildest Dreams" came true.
The IRL Eras Tour experience: Nothing like on a screen
Having watched a couple of dozen grainy livestreams of the Eras Tour as it worked its way around the U.S, through parts of Asia and Australia, through Europe, then back to the U.S. and Toronto before landing at BC Place this weekend, hundreds of short video clips of moments from the show, and the Eras Tour movie in the theatres last year, I felt as though I had essentially been preparing for this moment for a year and a half.
But there was nothing like the feeling of entering the stadium for the first time on Friday night.
And I'm not sure words can even adequately express what the experience of seeing Swift play to an enthralled crowd of 60,000 fans from my vantage point in the 12th row of the floor's middle section feels like.
It was rare, I was there. It was the most fun I've ever had.
I'm mixing eras here, but that is what the Eras Tour is: A retrospective of an 18-year (and counting) professional music career spanning genres from country-pop to folk-alt, with a lot of pure, blissful radio hit pop in between.
To be honest, Swift doesn't even play my favourite songs; as much as I adore her many hits, with a catalog of 274 songs, she plays about 45 during the show either in their entirety or a modified version.
Given how prepared I was for the setlist and staging, being in the crowd, shoulder to shoulder with Swift fans from around the globe, the IRL experience was nothing short of surreal.
I was struck most by how profoundly different the music-watching experience is from the music-listening experience. The intimacy of being one with Swift's often stunning lyricism and layered musical production is swapped for jaw-dropping special effects and choreography and the sound of 60,000 other people singing along.
From my spot on the floor, the closeness to the end-point of the huge catwalk is at once enthralling but also maddening. At any given point you are craning your next to try to see the small spec that is Swift and her dancers as you jockey to get a look between arms held aloft making "heart hands," people waving, and cameras recording endless minutes.
Swift does an amazing job of accounting for the scope of the stage by varying the production with moving risers, travelling to every point on the stage, and large-scale elements that make what is small seem large.
The first eras in the show: Lover, Fearless, Red
This is how the show begins, with her dancers holding massive coral and mauve-tinted petals a few times their body size aloft, waving and bending them until Swift finally emerges to "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince," from her 2019 album Lover.
It's fitting Swift begins with Lover, as the tour - the Loverfest - for the release was thwarted by the pandemic in 2020.
In her first of a few remarks to the crowd, Swift teased the Vancouver crowd, asking if they happen to know the bridge to "Cruel Summer," ordering us to "prove it" by singing along. Silly Taylor: Of course we could do that!
Though Swift leaves tracks from her debut self-titled country album off the Eras, she wows with three of the biggest sparkling country-tinged hits from Fearless: "Fearless," "You Belong With Me," and "Love Story," the latter of which often prompts proposals in the crowd, though I didn't see any.
The Red set brings some of the tour's signature moments, including Swift passing her hat to a young fan chosen to await the honour at the very end of the stage during "22." The Vancouver N1 recipient was an exuberant little girl who seemed - unsurprisingly - to relish ever moment of the special occasion.
During "We Are Never Getting Back Together," when Swift does the spoken segment, she tips the microphone to dancer Kam Saunders, who is known for giving a different ad-lib response, sometimes one chosen to resonate with the local crowd. He may have worked through his Canadiana quips in the six previous shows in Toronto, as he went with the more standard "Like, ever!" but that may also have been because the show was being professionally filmed.
Show largely devoid of surprises for fans making predictions
While fans (including me) had spent weeks speculating what surprise elements the show might contain, the first Vancouver show was devoid of any such mischief. Swift did not add the beloved anthem "Long Live" back into her Speak Now set, opting instead to keep it to its sole song, "Enchanted."
As Swift sings "I was enchanted to meet you," she extended her arm and pointed, sweeping across the stadium. For a moment, you feel like she is talking precisely to you.
The strong beats of Swift's set from her game-changing Reputation album provided classic concert vibes and the added wow factor of some of the show's most demanding physicality and spotlight notes. Speaking of no surprises, while fans have been clamouring for Swift to reveal when she will release her re-recorded version of Reputation (i.e. the "Taylor's Version" for which she will own the masters), this show had no such announcement.
Three-minute ovation following "Champagne Problems"
Swift next emerges in a long, flowy dress, perched atop a mossy cabin roof, for the "sister album" set of Folklore and Evermore, aka Folkmore. The surprise albums came out in quick succession during the pandemic and marked a massive shift in Swift's music, pushing further into songs based on fictional storytelling paired with a pared-back alt-folk sound.
Ahead of "Champagne Problems," which Swift plays alone on the piano, the star reflected on the uncertainty she felt at the time that those albums' songs would ever get to be played live. Like some kind of massive uncorking of collective relief, the song is always finished by a lengthy ovation; in this case, I've seen it estimated at three minutes. It is the loudest moment in the entire show.
Being on the floor has pros and cons, but never was it more worthwhile than during this set, particularly during "My Tears Ricochet" and "August."
Some fans in our zone ruined "Willow," by blowing up orange balloons and holding phone flashlights up behind them to mimic the glowing orbs the dancers hold during the song. It was distracting and inconsiderate, as we now had to peer through raised arms and balloons to see anything, never mind that only a few patches of the crowd took it upon themselves to mount the campaigns (some with paper lanterns) so it had a mild effect.
Specatular pop performances (with pyrotechnics)
But it was back to big shiny pop with the 1989 set, with huge hits like "Shake it Off" and "Style." Oh, and there is fire, shooting into the air from several points during "Bad Blood," casting a temporary layer of heat into the room. It was spectacular.
One of her longest sets goes to her most recent release, The Tortured Poets Department, which came out in April amidst the ongoing Eras Tour. The staging in this seven-song block (which did not include a wished-for guest appearance from "Fortnight" duetter Post Malone) is phenomenal, featuring Swift seemingly levitating and also swooping in circles around the stage on a moving platform.
Brokenhearted genius on display
The last song in the set, "I Can Do it With a Broken Heart," seems like a light-hearted bop, often named by young girls as their favourite Swift tune from the album. However, it's a brilliant example of what Swift does with music that not only is the opposite emotion as the lyrics (which are bleak, sad, and self-referential) but that encapsulates a powerful experience. The song is about Swift having to "fake it" onstage in 2023 doing the Eras Tour while experiencing a profound heartbreak, summoning grit and masking her true feelings to please the crowds chanting "more." It's staged as a vaudevillian comedy, with two dancers forcing Swift to change costumes and buck up and put on a smile as the show must go on.
The TTPD set gives way to the "acoustic section," aka "Surprise Song O'Clock," with Swift doing a different song every night solo, one on guitar and one on piano. This is her playground, and she makes the rules, which is to say anything goes. This year, she has taken to doing "mash-ups" of two (sometimes three) songs on each instrument.
The acoustic section, aka "Surprise Song O'Clock"
On guitar, Swift merged "Haunted" from Speak Now with "Wonderland," from 1989. The crowd, equipped with wristbands that light up to pair with eras and moments (rapidly alternating orange and red for the falling leaves of "All Too Well," for example), began to sparkle purple, then teal, and then a mix of both to represent the two "eras."
Moving to the piano, Swift mashed up two sentimental songs from her earlier years, "Never Grow Up" from Speak Now and "The Best Day," from Fearless.
After finishing on the piano, Swift "dives" below the stage as the show segues into the final set, Midnights. This, too, has incredible staging, from a sexy slow chair dance segment to "Vigilante Shit," to the literal shimmering sights of "Bejeweled."
And then...it's over
With a final thank you to Vancouver, the show closes with "Karma." There are fireworks and confetti cannons. We are going out on a high note.
Swift rarely varies her onstage remarks, occasionally dropping in a location-specific reference or sharing a special detail. In this case, the fact that this is the last stop on the tour was brought up a few times.
Near the end of the night, in "Midnight Rain," Swift holds up her left hand and drops the first three of its fingers: She has been counting down the number of shows left, and after Friday, that means there are two left.
And here's the thing: I cannot imagine I will have proven to you that you should a) like Taylor Swift or b) go see the Eras Tour.
And why bother? For one, you don't have to like her. You don't even have to like her as much as I do. It's okay, there's room for all of us in the world. The other elephant in the room is, if you don't have a ticket, it's going to be hard to get one (though last-minute ones will be on reselling sites like StubHub even when the show begins - which, in fact, starts with a short set by emerging pop star Gracie Abrams, who captivates the crowd with her musicianship and lyricism).
Then, of course, the obvious: There are only two shows left.
Swift is unabashed about the fact that the Eras Tour is a massive love letter to fans. It's the longest she's ever been on tour and the most shows she's done on any tour. The physical demands of the show are mind-boggling, and she does it "in stilettos for a mile," and sings likely nearly all of the show live.
TL; DR: It was rare, I was there. It was the most fun I've ever had.
