Red Tour Review

            I consider myself a pop culture expert. In order to maintain this title, I make sure to follow prominent figures in society. Of course, these figures include the Jonas Brothers.
            On Friday night, all three of the Jo Bros were tweeting sincere apologies. Why were they so sorry? They had to cancel their outdoor show in New York due to severe thunderstorms.

            When I read this, my heart dropped. No, I was not planning to attend the concert. As soon as I read the fan-devastating news, my mind immediately went to perhaps the most prominent figure in pop culture at the moment: Taylor Swift.

            I have had tickets to go see Taylor at Lincoln Financial Field (the outdoor stadium where the Philadelphia Eagles play) since Christmas. When I heard about JB cancelling their concert the day before I was scheduled to see Taylor Swift and thought of the excessive heat wave we have been having, I got nervous. I checked the weather. 30% chance. I sighed, relieved. There is always a 30% chance of rain during the hot and humid summer, I thought. In my eyes, Taylor and I were in the clear.

SO EXCITED to see Taylor!

            Fast forward to the next night. I was just blown away by my dream ginger Ed Sheeran. Seriously, that boy is talented. My friend, who had taken the day off from her job as a counselor at a sleep away camp, and I could barely contain our excitement. According to the scoreboard, Taylor was set to come on at 8:45 p.m.

            At 8:40, a text from my dad popped up on my phone.

            It’s about to explode here, the text read.

           My eyes shot up. To my surprise, the sky was clear around the stadium. However there were a few storm clouds in the distance.

             It looks pretty clear here. She’s supposed to come on in two minutes, I responded.

            I would bet you anything she’s not coming on in two minutes, was my dad’s snarky response.

            Just as I was about to take that bet, this started happening:

            That’s right. We had to evacuate the outdoor area due to severe storm warnings from the National Weather Service. I swear, 50,000 people groaned at once. At first people looked around confused and panicked. It’s not even raining right now! Is the show cancelled? I want my money back!

            After a while, all 50,000 people were somehow squished onto the tiny concourse. It was a sea of red clothes and crying little girls. Seemingly out of nowhere, the rain picked up, followed by collective screams of people near the openings being soaked. The thunder, lightening, and wind were all intense. Apocalypse-like conditions surrounded the stadium. At that point, I was convinced that I wasn’t seeing Taylor Swift that night.

            Since I am a self-proclaimed pop culture expert, I decided to check twitter.  Suddenly, I was in a state of grace. Pun intended. I felt like jumping around and screaming. This is what I saw:

            So, my girl/hero/idol/role model/life aspiration came through. I was elated. But, there was one issue. My friend was able to lave camp to come to the concert by taking a day off. According to her camp’s rules, counselors must be back from an off day by 1 a.m. Since it was 10:30 at this point and her camp was 2 hours away, there was no way she was going to be able to make curfew. She called her camp director to tell him the situation and to ask if she could spend the night at home or get back about an hour late. Any normal person would have been completely understanding and granted her permission to stay over or get back to camp late. After all, she took the day off specifically to see the concert and the weather delay was not her fault.

            Just as the lights went down and the stadium exploded in cheers, my friend got a response from the camp director. I’m sorry about the weather but I’m going to need you back here as planned, it coldly read. Even after attempting to negotiate and beg, the power hungry director wouldn’t budge. My friend had to leave after two songs in order to make it back on time. So I spent the vast majority of the concert alone. Good thing it was so amazing that I barely even noticed.

            The concert started with a giant silhouette of Taylor standing behind a red curtain. I heard the familiar drums of my second-favorite song off the album Red. The opening track to her album was also the opening track to her show. “State of Grace” filled the stadium. The song is the perfect pump-up jam with an uplifting beat and powerful vocals. The performance appropriately set the mood for the entire night.

Taylor performing State of Grace.
Source: tumblr.com

            Next came the happy, dance-friendly track “Holy Ground”. I knew this performance would be impressive, but I was blown away. In the studio version of the song, there is a sort of dance break at the bridge of the song, with Taylor singing “Tonight I’m gonna dance/for all that we’ve been through/but I don’t wanna dance/if I’m not dancing with you”. As the audience was prepping for the best part of the song, they got a surprise. Instead of going right into it, Taylor and her dancers paused the song to go into an epic drum set, complete with neon glowing drums. It was so awesome and completely unexpected.

            Perhaps my favorite part of concerts is when the artist stops to talk to the audience. After two amazing songs, Taylor did just that. This time, Philadelphia got a special talk. Taylor exclaimed how gracious and thankful she was that basically all 50,000 people stayed through the rain and a two-hour delay to watch her play. She told the audience that she was sitting backstage saying “Stop it rain, stop it rain, stop it rain, I have to go play a sold-out show in my hometown.” (Taylor is originally from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.)

            Tay then teased the audience about how to her, different colors represent different emotions. (She also mentioned people lying and cheating on her, which is rumored to be why she and Harry Styles broke up.) She continued her spiel saying, “Tonight you’re going to see one color more than any other colors” and was met with excessive cheers from the crowd. That led into a colorful performance of her album’s title track, “Red”. Each time she mentioned a color in the song, said color would appear in lights behind her. The stage was covered in red spotlights at one point, making Taylor herself appear red.

            I have been to two other Taylor Swift shows, and each time I was very impressed by the transitions between costume changes. This time was no difference. During Taylor’s first costume change, they played an Old Hollywood inspired video of Taylor talking about the downside of fame. She came out in a vintage-looking dress to perform “The Lucky One”, which is a song about being in the limelight.

Old Hollywood costumes for "The Lucky One"
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            I knew that the Red Tour would be comprised mostly of songs from Red, but I also expected some throwbacks. Taylor did perform some older songs, but not the songs I expected. She performed “Mean”, a hit from her third album Speak Now. I do love the song, but she played it on her last tour. She also performed the opening song from the Speak Now Tour, “Sparks Fly”. I was happy to hear it because that is one of my favorite songs by her, but again, I was surprised that she performed it because it was included in her most recent set list. She also performed the finale of the Speak Now Tour, “Love Story”. Again, I really did enjoy these songs, but I was hoping that she played older songs that were not included in the Speak Now Tour.

            The good news is I did get the type of throwback I wanted. After Taylor performed an extraordinarily upbeat and amazingly choreographed rendition of her hit “22” and made her way to the crowd to the “B Stage”, (Taylor is known to go to a second stage closer to audience members in the back) she broke out in an remarkable acoustic version of “You Belong With Me”. This song was a huge success off of Fearless. I was so happy that she brought this song back. Because of the rain delay, Taylor cut out a few performances. Apparently, “You Belong with Me” is usually an elaborate performance on the main stage. This time, she opted for a more intimate, acoustic version. I think I actually prefer the acoustic version. It was interesting to hear a song I’ve listened to a million times be performed differently and her voice sounded incredible. On top of that, the song turned into a huge audience sing-a-long.

            Ed Sheeran then joined Taylor on the B Stage, which was awesome because two of my favorite musicians were so close to me. They performed their duet “Everything Has Changed”, which in my opinion, sounded even better live.

            Taylor made her way back to the main stage and went to change out of her cute black and white striped shirt and red shorts. Never leaving the audience bored, an exceptional rock-and-roll-ish violinist took the stage. At first she was playing an unfamiliar song, but then I recognized the bridge of “I Knew You Were Trouble”. 

            Taylor popped up in an innocent, Victorian-inspired white dress and sang the first couple of verses of the song. Then right before the drop, her dancers surrounded her and she emerged in a skin-tight black leotard. The costume change was very well orchestrated and fitting to the song. Then came perhaps the coolest, most unexpected part of the concert. “I Knew You Were Trouble” strays from Taylor’s typical country-pop style by incorporating EDM (electronic dance music) in the background. During the performance, she accentuated that aspect

After the costume change.
Source: tumblr.com

of the song. In the middle of the song, the lights lowered and the bass dropped. Suddenly, it was as if I was at a Skrillex concert. Neon laser lights moved to the heavy electronic beat, and Taylor and her dancers robotically moved around. The entire audience was jamming out to the cool twist on the song they know and love. I loved seeing Taylor explore different music genres and performance techniques.

           After, Taylor completely shifted gears and began talking about how she writes songs to make sense of things that happen to her. Sitting at a piano, she explained that if she can write a song and make sense of why things (break ups, heartache, etc.) had to occur, she can see the lesson in it. Taylor said that sometimes you have to look back and remember all of the things you experienced with a person, and how “sometimes, you remember it all too well”. I apologize to my neighbors for shrieking in excitement when she said this. “All Too Well” is not only my favorite song off of Red, but also probably my favorite Taylor song of all time. My play count of the song is ridiculous and borderline sickening, but I don’t care because I love it so much. Taylor poured her soul onto the piano and microphone, making the lyrics to my favorite song come alive. There is a point in the song where it shifts perspectives. For the majority, the song is Taylor talking in first person, but towards the end it shifts to second person, saying that the boy (Jake Gyllenhaal) remembers their relationship as well. During the breathtaking performance, Taylor paused in between this shift. It was interesting because it seemed as though the song had ended with her being sad about the relationship and feeling lost and lonely. But then, after loud screams and cheers, she picked up the beat of the song to croon about how the other person feels the same way. I thought that was a very fascinating way to portray the song and it made me appreciate the work of art even more than I already did. (Side note: The video below was taken by yours truly. Please ignore my signing and shaky hand.)

            After toying with my emotions, Swift changed into a sweet black and white dress to perform “Treacherous”. The song talks about the treacherous slope of a relationship and this time, Taylor took the lyrics literally. A stage a little wider than a balance beam lifted high above the stage and Taylor

Source: tumblr.com

walked carefully down it. I found myself cringing, worrying that she was going to fall. I don’t know how she sang the song flawlessly with the threat of breaking her neck looming so closely, but hey, I guess she’s arguably the biggest star of the generation for a reason.

            As Taylor left the stage, circus music and characters took over. A ballerina in a tutu and glittery horse head strutted around the stage to the traditional circus tune, accompanied by other circus performers. I was a little confused as to why I was suddenly at the circus, but when Taylor emerged it all made sense. She was adorned in a sparkling red ringleader outfit, complete with a top hat and cane. The famous opening guitar chords from her mega-single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” engulfed the stadium. Surrounded by circus performers, Taylor went into a high-energy performance of her album’s first single. She stepped off of the stage and onto a beam that lifted her up and swung her out and around the audience. This was cool, but not as cool as her flying over the audience for the Speak Now Tour or it raining on stage for the Fearless Tour. However, she made up for it with an abundance of fireworks both behind her and above the stadium. There were also copious amounts of confetti flooding the audience. I was a little surprised that she did not come back for an encore, but the WANEGBT performance was so eye-catching, impressive, and intense that the show didn’t need it.

The finale
Source: tumblr.com

            The Red Tour was absolutely mind-blowing and incredible. The fact that Taylor did not cancel due to the storm and put on one of the best shows I have ever seen in my life reaffirmed why she is my idol and hero.

            Earlier in the night, Taylor and Ed observed that we were the loudest crowed that they have ever had. They chalked it up to the rain delay. If waiting two hours on a cramped stadium concourse in an apocalyptic thunderstorm is what I have to do to see a show with that much entertainment and energy, I better go get some umbrellas and a poncho because I would gladly do it again to relive the best night ever.