Review: Taylor Swift Brings Epic The Eras Tour to Sold-Out US Bank Stadium (Originally Published by TwinCitiesGayScene.com)
Review By Derek Murawski-Harguth
Photography By Jacob Murawski-Harguth
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Multitalented icon Taylor Swift served her greatest hits to Minneapolis, MN at US Bank Stadium in an epic, yet genuinely friendly, stadium concert experience. The first of Swift’s two consecutive nights at the stadium was a testament to the inclusive and friendly energy of her epic, “Minnesota nice” crowd of fans.
The Eras Tour is named such because it separately explores nine of Swift’s studio album release periods. Visuals and music from these nine eras were fully realized by her and her team as ten onstage acts (including a surprise acoustic act of two songs, “Paper Rings” and “If This Was A Movie (Taylor’s Version)”). The album acts were not presented in chronological order, however, but smartly shuffled to keep the audience guessing.
The tour featured dazzling imagery on a giant video wall, three huge stages connected by a central runway, an array of dance styles from a baker’s dozen of diverse dancers, four brilliant backup vocalists, and a live band with propulsive sound. There was a tangible feeling of fan euphoria during big moments of the giant show, like Swift’s grand entrance.
Throughout the show, the audience would occasionally add a bonus lyric to a song. It was like the Taylor Swift version of how Rocky Horror Picture Show fans yell lines back at the theater screen — that aren’t in the movie. I witnessed one instance where Swift herself was perhaps expecting it. I saw she was delighted at how loud the audience delivered the line. It reminded me of how many Easter eggs and references she buries in her ever-growing, audio-visual catalog.
Musically, the show was exceptionally diverse, from the aforementioned acoustic surprise act, to profound performances from her pandemic LPs Folklore and Evermore, to her Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and Red (Taylor’s Version) country-pop roots, to her humongous pop radio hits from 1989, Reputation, Lover, and Midnights.
The acoustic songs felt organically and perfectly picked, as Swift told the crowd, she’s been hearing fans request her 2019 Lovertrack “Paper Rings” in “mass amounts” throughout the tour. Swift said the requests correlated with this summer’s streaming resurgence of the Lover album. “Paper Rings” was presented as an upbeat, joyous acoustic guitar rendition. “If This Was A Movie (Taylor’s Version)” was played and sung beautifully by Swift on an ornately-decorated piano.
Swifties seemed equally as excited about every album era, but uniquely excited for the pandemic era music of Folklore and Evermore. Swift confided with the audience that she didn’t write some of the songs with live performance in mind. That’s likely why they felt so special and rare to fans.
Swift’s country-pop albums Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), and Red (Taylor’s Version) were presented as three separate era acts throughout the night. Swift explained that she had always dreamed of owning her recorded music catalog. She is making that dream a reality by re-recording all of her pre-Lover albums as “Taylor’s Version” albums, to denote her ownership.
The big pop hits from the 1989, Reputation, Lover and Midnightsalbum eras were staged in grand ways. 1989 hit “Shake It Off” was so joyous, it felt like a giant, shared rush of serotonin. The grand theatrics of 2018’s Reputation Stadium Tour — which Swift also performed to a sold-out US Bank Stadium — were brought back during the Reputation album era act.
This was met with the delight of audiences that may or may not have seen Reputation Stadium Tour in-person, as it’s also a Netflix special. Having reviewed Reputation Stadium Tour in-person for SCENE, I loved the shortened revival. From hissing onscreen snakes, to the decorative snake wrapped around Swift’s microphone, every detail perfectly popped during songs like the hit single, “Look What You Made Me Do.”
Lover single “The Man” was presented in a giant office environment, complete with physical corporate ladders Swift climbed up. She made it to the top office desk in time for the song’s crescendo. Her baker’s dozen of talented backup dancers had acting skills, too, really selling it as frantic office workers.
The Lover single “You Need to Calm Down” is a real Pride banger, with lyrics like, “‘Cause shade never made anybody less gay.” During the Lover era act, onscreen visuals featured a house which had various color rooms, creating a rainbow effect that resembled the LGBTQIA+ Progress Pride flag.
Every act felt wholly unique, especially since they were shuffled around in the timeline. However, no act could bring things to close quite like the epic Midnights era act — it felt like the final exclamation mark on the night. It featured eye-popping cloud visuals, both onscreen and off. Dancers held up ladders that went into physically-crafted clouds during Midnights single “Lavender Haze.”
Forget a fake-out encore — Swift instead closed the Midnights era act, and the Minneapolis night one show as a whole, with her current single “Karma.” The single version features Ice Spice, but Minneapolis’ version was solo. Swift then took time to thank all the people that made the show happen.
The connection Taylor Swift shares with her fans is tangible, but the fact that her fans share that connection with each other — within their Swiftie fandom — is incredible. I knew I was in for a special concert gathering when I received a handful of friendship bracelets from different audience members before the show. That “real deal” feeling of being in a pop culture moment that will live on as iconic, was mind-blowing, but thankfully not lost on me.
It’s what Taylor Swift fans love about the Swiftie fandom. After countless bonding experiences throughout Swift’s epic career — whether it be a music video premiere in the YouTube comments, a clever Twitter thread, an album release day at Target, etc. — the Swifties have deep, commonly-shared experiences centering around Swift’s art.
It was only deepened further by the physical isolation of the global pandemic, during which Swift released some of her most acclaimed work ever, and fans bonded over it virtually. The inclusive attitude of Swiftie friendships is a humbling thing to witness in person, especially within such a giant space as a stadium.
