Photos by Ty Hyten
The Scene: The Pepsi Center was bubbling over with adolescent energy Sunday night during Taylor Swift’s second sold-out night of her 1989 World Tour. Miniature Taylor Swifts in bright red lipstick, wayfarers, and various homemade recreations of her video outfits waited in long lines for merch, photo booths, and various sponsored photos ops with large photos of their idol. They also carried homemade signs quoting Taylor’s lyrics or professing their love.
For an artist who has seemingly grabbed quite a few older fans with her last record (based on my group of friends), her audience was overwhelmingly young women, well, and their chaperones/moms-of-the-year. There were some men floating around, mostly on dates with girlfriends in their twenties, so luckily the lines for the men’s room and the bars were empty.
Vance Joy: Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy opened the night with a set of strummy, Pop songs with gentle verses and huge choruses. I won’t be rushing out to pick-up his album, but he and his band were a good fit for the crowd. He capped his set with his megahit singalong “Riptide” and the piercing sound of screaming teenagers made its first entrance for the night.
Taylor Swift: Fine, I’ll admit it. Somehow over the past few years I have become a Taylor Swift fan girl. From absolutely refusing to ever listen to her music, or anything like it really, I somehow began dipping my toes in the water from the safety of the private setting on Spotify. It slowly took hold and as a half-joke, half-sincere Christmas gift from my girlfriend, I ended up with my very own copy of Taylor’s 1989 album. Soon it was a fixture in my CD player and it was getting harder and harder to keep people from finding out. Consider Sunday night my coming out party, and honestly, it feels real good. Sure, the lyrics don’t speak to me and I don’t care who the songs are rumored to have been written about, but it’s so damn catchy, fun, and strangely nostalgic.
As music began, so did the hysterical screaming of all the luckiest girls in the metro area – including me. A small group of dancers emerged from the floor onto a stage set as a classic New York street scene. Rising from the floor behind them came Swift, wearing a half-lingerie, fully sparkly outfit that could have easily been retrieved from Cyndi Lauper’s storage unit. It was the first of a dozen or so outfits of the night and probably enough to make a few moms question the content of what they had just spent $400 a ticket for.
Singing “Welcome to New York,” Swift walked down the a catwalk that stretched the length of the arena, throwing her hands in the air and striking poses every few steps. Her troop of dancers, all a slight variation on Channing Tatum, sweated and thrusted as they followed her around like a hungry group of puppies. The dancers also changed outfits every couple of songs, but mostly ended up shirtless. They danced around various props and squeezed in some acrobatic stunts from time-to-time. A large screen served as their backdrop and was used to play video of Swift that was captured from a fleet of cameras, including an NFL-style hanging camera on wires that hovered in front of her wherever she went.
Other production highlights included light-up bracelets that were waiting for each fan when they arrived. They changed color, in unison, in conjunction with the stage show and looking up and out of them from near the stage was like staring into the night sky. Taylor told the crowd it was so she could see each and every fan. It was one of the cooler things I’ve seen at a show.
The show was incredibly well polished and orchestrated. That may feel anti-Rock ‘N Roll to some, but it’s a necessity for a show like this. All of the stage transitions were like clock work and even Taylor’s stage banter seemed rehearsed and without miscue. Her brief monologues were certainly aimed at teens, preaching self-acceptance and not getting caught up in what other people think. I could have done without that, along with the constant shout-outs to Denver, but I realize I wasn’t exactly part of the main demographic in the room. I did, however, get a kick out of the catwalk, which raised fifteen to twenty feet above the crowd and rotated a full 360 degrees, placing most of the entire lower level of the stadium in the front row at some point in the show.
Swift’s nearly two-hour set was centered on songs from 1989 but she squeezed in new versions of some older songs as well. Those included a dark and electric guitar heavy “I Knew You Were Trouble,” a solo-acoustic “You Belong With Me,” a synthy “Love Story” and a Punk-Rock “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” with Swift on rhythm guitar. Her full band was tight, though rarely something I thought about with all of the other things happening on stage. Swift handed most of her guitar playing off to the band on this tour, but she still displayed that she can play guitar, and keys as well. Notably on a solo piano version of “Enchanted” into “Wildest Dreams.” Swift’s vocals were also spot on. She was aided by a group of backup singers mirroring her parts most of the night, but when she sang by herself, she still didn’t miss a note.
Highlights and fan favorites were “Blank Space,” “Out Of The Woods” with paper plane-shaped confetti raining from the ceiling, and an encore performance of “Shake It Off” that completed with Fourth of July style fireworks exploding from the top of the stage.
Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour was a huge production and a huge display of talent from Taylor, her dancers, and her band. You could never have heard a song and enjoyed the spectacle alone, or you could have known every song and peed your pants like me. Either way, come on, join me in the Taylor Swift grown man fan club.
Energy: A+
Musicianship: A
Sound: A
Stage Presence: A+
Set/Light Show: A+
Overall: A
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