MCG, Melbourne – words by Charlotte Poynton
I am initially going to preface this piece by saying that this is less of a typical review and more of a diary entry of my experience as a die-hard swiftie having my once in a lifetime opportunity to see the musician who raised me performing live.
Merely two and a half weeks before the concert, my sister managed to get hold of one Ticketek Marketplace re-sale, E reserve, Section N26, back row ticket for Swift’s second Australian show, night two at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Naarm. Despite the obnoxious warning of “side view – partially obstructed”, I was eternally over the moon to actually have a ticket in my sights after months of tears and heartache over missing tickets and having the “hold tight!” message slap me in the face on the daily. Not the slightest deterred by the 20 hour drive separating me from the concert of my dreams, my dad jumped on personal uber duties and faced the entire drive from Meanjin to Naarm and back. (The primary message of this entire piece is that my family deserves all the praise they can get for allowing this opportunity to happen).
With the pressure to choose the perfect outfit for the night of your life, whether that be a cardigan or a mix of short skirts, t-shirts and sneakers, I opted to pay homage and bring justice to the often overlooked yet timelessly iconic debut album era. Though my simple green dress, boots and cowboy hat were a cute and comfortable concert choice, there was such an array or gorgeous handmade costumes and replicas of current and previous tour outfits on display that one couldn’t help but to be awestruck. Chorusing of “I love your outfit” echoed throughout the promenade of the MCG, and I wish I had taken more time to walk around and enjoy all the effort put into these costumes.
One of the many memories that fans will takeaway from their Eras Tour experience is the arms full of friendship bracelets, creating a personalised attachment to the night and establishing a connection with other concert-goers. Though some fans secured tickets back in the pre-sale/general sale and have been making bracelets for months, I managed to only find time to make 11 bracelets to trade. Nonetheless, there were many swifties happy to give away bracelets to their new friends, and many with hyper-specific inside jokes and references to niche corners of the Tay-universe. I walked away at the end of the night with sixteen bracelets, including six based on Swift’s debut album era and one very entertaining bracelet with the lyrics “key lime green” from The Last Great American Dynasty. My by-far favourites though include two traded from the lovely girls beside me, who had travelled from New Zealand for the opportunity to see the Eras Tour, which read the lyrics “karma is a cat” and “long live”.
What initially shocked me about my E reserve seat of “obstructed side view” in section N26 was how non-obstructed it truly was. Granted, we were a distance from the stage and were not able to see the front screen, but this section had a perfect view of the catwalk and the diamond, as well as having a screen right in front of us and a sneaky view of backstage where we got to wave to the dancers and the band before they went on stage. The pre-show playlist was something only Swift herself could craft, with multiple songs from Haim, Doja Cat, King Princess and Paramore reigning in the atmosphere as the audience filtered through the stadium doors and found their seats.
Soon enough, Sabrina Carpenter hit the stage for her support act slot, earning high praise and support from the many Swifties that made it to the stadium early. With almost every second body in the room knowing ever word to every song, Sabrina cycled through viral hits including ‘Feather’, ‘Because I Liked a Boy’ and ‘Vicious’, before giving a show-stopping cover of ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’. Ending off her set with Nonsense, Sabrina delivered a unique outro with the lyrics “I don’t say hello I say g’day mate, I don’t make a bevvy I’m a lightweight, Melbourne I just came I saw and I ate”, which sent both the crowd and the internet into a frenzy. After her set, the crowd was ultimately buzzing in excitement and anticipation of the one and only Taylor Swift hitting the stage in merely moments.
Screams left every single body in the stadium as a countdown appeared on the stage screen, counting down the very last moments until the beginning of our ‘Cruel Summer’. It was such a surreal experience to actually realise that Taylor Swift was there, was human, and was singing ‘Miss Americana’ and the ‘Heartbreak Prince’ to over 96,000 swifties (not counting those gathered outside the stadium). Cycling through to ‘Cruel Summer’ to cross the first bridge of the evening, crowds were ecstatic and braving through our truly cruel summer heat and sunburn with this song. Her dancers proved themselves to be a spectacle in their own right with ‘The Man and Lover’, and the crowd lit up in a showcase of rainbow lighting as our LED wristbands celebrated ‘You Need To Calm Down’. Before we could even feel settled into our Lover era, it was already time to travel back to 2008 with Fearless.
A shower of golden glitter welcomed Swift and her beloved band onto the stage for ‘Fearless’, ‘You Belong With Me’ and ‘Love Story’. The spotlight took turns to shine on different members of her band, including Paul Sidoti who has been touring with her since the Fearless era. I think the most special moment of the night for me was witnessing the performance of ‘Love Story’, and my past six year old self getting to hear her favourite song live for the first time.
We then ventured into the evermore set of the night, with trees lining the stage and a sparkly bronze dress. Despite it being the middle of February, Naarm got into the spirit of ‘tis the damn season before being inducted into a witchy cult with an extended version of ‘willow’. Tears were brought to the eyes of all with a heartfelt performance of ‘marjorie’, before Swift was met with a five minute standing ovation after ‘champagne problems’. Audiences were then treated to a theatrical performance of ‘tolerate it’, before we ventured out of the whimsical world of evermore and into our Reputation era.
The Naarm skies fell dark to symbolise that we were quite indeed …Ready For It?. With a slithering snake and a vengeance, Taylor Swift brought the raw angst of the Reputation era to a room of swifties nervously anticipating the announcement of ‘Reputation’ (Taylor’s Version). Welcoming iconic chants in the opening of ‘Delicate’ and blowing minds with ‘Don’t Blame Me’, Swift then brought havoc with ‘Look What You Made Me Do’, a performance which saw her fighting her own Taylor-clones from previous eras.
Just as we had channelled all of our internal anguish, we were transported into a lilac daydream with the Speak Now era with a gorgeous performance of ‘Enchanted’ and the loudest crowd sing along of the night in ‘Long Live’. As a hardcore Speak Now stan, I will stand and say that I was led by pure delusion to think that maybe she could have expanded this set, by perhaps adding iconic tracks such as ‘The Story of Us’ or ‘Sparks Fly’ to the performance, but at least we had double the ‘Speak Now’ set to those at the start of the tour who missed out on ‘Long Live’.
With the wheeling out of a magical music box, we had officially been inducted into our Red era. Snippets of ‘State of Grace’ and ‘Holy Ground’ prepared us for ’22’, where lucky swiftie Oliver Mills managed to walk away with the ’22’ bowler hat and a hug from the most illusive woman in the room. Touring us through 2012 with ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ and ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’, Swift then asked if we had ten minutes to spare before breaking into the only setlist song from the vault, ‘All Too Well’ (10 Minute Version). Despite the lengthy song, there was no audible stumble in the word for word lyric chanting from the crowd.
If ten minutes of pure rage against a certain actor who I refuse to name wasn’t enough for you, Swift then took us on a journey through history and mystical worlds with 2020 release folklore. Starting with a spoken word introduction through ‘seven’, we explored the cabin with the 1 and kicked off the teenage love triangle with ‘betty’. Swift’s dancers excelled again with the ‘last great american dynasty’, before we cycled through ‘august’, ‘illicit affairs’ and a very fuelled performance of my ‘tears ricochet’. We closed off our time of stories, fables, and may I say folklore, with a stunning performance of ‘cardigan’.
Finishing our journey through the album eras is the pop record that re-defined the genre, 1989. Entering the era in nothing but ‘Style’, there were chants of “Melbourne” in the bridge of ‘Blank Space’ before the cathartic joy of ‘Shake It Off’. As if in a haste to get to the next section of the show, both ‘Wildest Dreams’ and ‘Bad Blood’ were shortened yet equally iconic versions, in the latter we see the previously bright and shiny ‘Lover House’ burn down in a symbolistic fashion.
The most exciting – and most talked about – part of the Eras Tour is the acoustic set (also known as surprise songs), and the night two crowd at the MCG were treated to the best surprise song set of the entire tour. Starting out on guitar, Swift spoke about honouring all her albums through this acoustic section and thinking about matching the moment of 96,000 people attending this show. She then said she might have found the song that everyone “really wanted to hear” and that we’d “have to let (her) know” if she did, before breaking into Reputation’s ‘Getaway Car’ and sending the MCG into eternal chaos and a sea of green light up bracelets. “I see that I’ve chosen correctly”, and oh was she right, all 96,000 voices were ecstatic to hear their favourite single that never was. Further throwing the night into chaos, she then continued with the chorus of folklore’s ‘august’, a song that was previously played as part of the folklore set merely minutes ago.
As if this Getaway Car x august mashup wasn’t insane enough, our first surprise song was closed off with the bridge from one of the best songs off Fearless, ‘The Other Side Of The Door’. It was hard to decipher if the crowd was more excited for this third instalment of the mashup than they were for the initial beginning of ‘Getaway Car’, but it was certain that this very five minute mashup was one that no one in that room would ever forget. Whilst the stadium was losing their mind, Swift wordlessly moved to the piano and serenaded us with the heartbreaking ‘this is me trying’. This acoustic set was nothing less than absolutely iconic, I am personally in disbelief that we witnessed the first three song mashup of the tour and that we got to witness the magic of an acoustic version of ‘this is me trying’. I further think that I will never ever shut up about these four surprise songs and the insanity of them all being played in one night.
To close off the night, we celebrated the latest release of Midnights by channelling the music video of ‘Lavender Haze’, before Swift came side stage and waved to all patrons in side view seats during ‘Anti-Hero’. ‘Midnight Rain’ greeted our clear 10.30pm skies, before absolute queer panic ensued during ‘Vigilante Shit’. Swift closed off the Midnights era with ‘Bejewelled’, ‘Mastermind’ and ‘Karma’, incorporating TikTok famous dances into the routine as the stadium was filled with confetti themed from each era.
Overall, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was an insane night of sparkling, cathartic emotional releases and pure unbridled joy. Though there was an insane setback to everyone’s pockets after organising tickets, flights, accommodation, outfits and merch, this night stood as a once in a lifetime experience and I would not trade this opportunity for anything else.
