Taylor Swift, Nationals Park, Washington DC, USA, July 13, 2015

The Taylor Swift 1989 tour. Was I going? Nope! No Way! That’s the answer that I gave my friends when they were first buying tickets to the show. I had no interest in going… because, you see, Taylor and I have history… and I’m still not over the betrayal. No, it’s not like it sounds… I’ve never been in a relationship with Taylor… she never wrote a song about me… in fact, I’ve never even met her. But… many years ago… when she was a country music star… I was a huge fan! I loved her first two albums and played them incessantly. I loved her high energy pop/country sound. I even saw her in concert many years ago (2009 I think), and I thought she put on an awesome show! But my enthusiasm for Taylor started to wane when I bought her third album, “Speak Now” in 2010. The album, in my opinion, was way more pop than country, and I was concerned that our relationship was on the decline. This was confirmed when her “Red” album was released in 2012… along with the notorious “Never Getting Back Together” song; which I really didn’t like. I never bought the album. Yep, Taylor, you’re correct… you and I are never (musically) getting back together… or so I thought….

When Taylor’s 1989 album was released this year, it was named after her birth year… because in her mind it was her rebirth into the pop genre. Taylor Swift was changing her genre to pop?… leaving country music behind?? Well, for me, that was about as earth shattering as if NASA had called a press conference to announced the sky was blue. I paid the album and its singles very little attention. But as the show dates in Washington DC drew near, and my friends’ enthusiasm for the show climbed… the photographer in me started to wonder if maybe I shouldn’t go anyway. I was sure I wouldn’t like the show, but I thought I might get some great pictures. So… literally, the week before the show… I decided that I would go give Taylor a chance… but my expectations were not high…

The show was at the Nationals Park (DC’s baseball stadium). The venue had a 45,000 seat capacity and Taylor sold it out 2 nights in a row! An impressive feat, I had to admit. When I checked in for the show, I, along with 44,999 other attendees, was handed a silicone wrist band than contained several small lights. Like every other attendee, I mindlessly put the wrist band on…. More on this evil device later…

Taylor Swift had, not one, not two, but three opening acts! The first two were the singers, Sean Mendes and Vance Joy. I had never heard of either of them before, but from all the screaming around me, it was obvious that a large number of the young girls in the audience knew who they were. I thought they both had good voices and played their guitars well… but they both stayed behind their mics and brought very little energy to the stage. The bottom line is I thought they were musically good but visually boring. The third opening act was a group of three sisters called Haim (their last name). I had also never heard of them before, but… as I found out after the show… I am, apparently one of very few people left in the world that hadn’t. They were one of the nominees for Best New Artist at the 57^th Grammy awards! They took the stage and put on a high energy rock show with great vocals and heavy guitar solos. All three girls played guitar (or bass) and drums. They played mostly original songs that I don’t know the names of… but… when they broke out into the second song (the early Fleetwood Mac cover, “Oh Well”), I was sold. I loved every second of Haim’s set. I thought they put on a musically great and very visually entertaining show. I especially liked the quadruple drum solo (all three sisters and the band’s drummer) on the final song! They only played 6 songs, which was way too few for me! When they left the stage, I thought I had already seen the highlight of the evening. But Taylor was next…

Now, I knew Taylor had the ability to put on a great show… as I personally witnessed back in 2009. I was hoping that she still played a lot of her older songs that I knew I’d like. But when the show started, it was obvious that this would be a very different kind of show than what I’d seem last time. What I saw last time was a concert, where Taylor and her band were the performers and, in addition to playing their instruments, the band was a very visual part of the show. Taylor’s 1989 tour is more like a traveling musical theater than a concert. The band, for the most part was barely visible… split into the dark back corners of the stage. Well, at least the music was live! The visual aspect of the show was almost entirely Taylor and a large army of male dancers. Now, I have nothing against musical theater… in fact, I frequently go to Broadway shows in New York City… so I decided to keep an open mind.

So… judging this as musical theater instead of a concert… the show was stunning! Taylor’s vocals were fantastic and she put on a high energy show. Her dance moves were great and in sync with her backup dancers the entire performance. She was very engaging with the audience and frequently told entertaining stories between her songs. There were multiple costume and set changes; at least 8-10 (I lost count). We did get one decent guitar solo when her two guitarists took center stage during one of her costume changes. There were approximately 19 songs in all, most of which I didn’t know as they were her newer songs. The show began with “Welcome to New York” complete with a NYC backdrop, park benches, and street lights. The wrist bands we had all donned when we walked in began to blink with changing colored lights and the entire stadium looked like it was filled with stars. They must have all been connected to a wifi computer was they seemed to be in sync with the songs as the show progressed. The audience was very enthusiastic and… as a “reward” for their enthusiasm (like she wasn’t going to do it anyway)… Taylor brought out a special guest! She has had different guests come on stage throughout the tour, and tonight’s guest was Lorde. She and Taylor performed a duet of her hit single “Royals” which was about the midpoint of the show.

Shortly after the duet, Taylor went out into the audience on her long catwalk… and then things really got interesting! The entire catwalk was supposed to rise up into the air… and then spin around on a central support like a giant helicopter blade carrying Taylor out over the heads of the audience members… but that is not what happened. The catwalk did indeed rise and then… broke. It stopped. It wouldn’t spin… it wouldn’t go back down… and Taylor was trapped… unable to get back to the main stage. Although it was apparently this caused her a great deal of stress, Taylor took it very professionally. She performed the 2-3 songs she was supposed to perform up there, and talked the audience through exactly what was happening while the mechanics tried to fix it. One of those songs was “Love Story”, the only song she performed from her first two albums. But the song was different, rewritten in more of a pop format. I was very disappointed in this as I liked the original version much better! Shortly afterward, the catwalk descended (but they never got it to spin), and a very relieved Taylor was able to make it back to the main stage!

The tempo picked up again for several songs including “Bad Blood”, which was my favorite number of the evening. It consisted of a very angry looking Taylor in a black leather outfit being carried around and sliding down large window like things. I wasn’t familiar with the song, but I was definitely caught up in the energy of the performance. Next was the infamous “Never Getting Back Together” song… the song that led to my final break with Taylor as a fan back in 2012. I groaned as it started as I thought it would kill my enthusiasm… but Taylor really rocked this song up in the live performance and even wailed away on an electric guitar. I was shocked… but I have to admit… I even enjoyed “that song”!! The evening ended with the energetic “Shake It Off”.

As I left the stadium, I was still in disbelief how much I actually enjoyed the show. As I met up with my friends afterward, I noticed that the flashing wristbands were still blinking to the movements of our arms…. And then it hit me… it all made sense… These weren’t just pretty blinking wrist bands… they had to be mind control devices… and Taylor had just enslaved 45,000 unsuspecting people. In my horror, I quickly ripped the wristband off… but it was too late… The damage was done! I still believed that I enjoyed the show and that Taylor put on a stunning performance… now where can I buy her new album….???

globalnoiz Taylor Swift USA