Taylor Swift with Gracie Abrams and beabadoobee at Mercedes-Benz Stadium 04/28/23

Photos and Words by Em Pearson

It’s Been A Long Time Coming: Taylor Swift’s Powerful Return To The Stage After Nearly 5 Years

By now, you’ve seen it. You’ve scroll past the tweets, swiped through the stories, and read all the posts. Taylor Swift is back on tour and arguably better than ever. Her highly anticipated “The Eras Tour” is in full swing and has captured the attention of die-hard Swifties (as her fans refer to themselves) and casual listeners alike. Regardless of your partiality to Swift and her music, there’s a good chance you’ve at least “just looked” at tickets to see if you can swing a chance to witness this record breaking show in person for yourself.

As a photojournalist and a swiftie of 17 years, I was so fortunate as to attend the opening night of The Eras Tour in Atlanta, Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In my preparation for writing my show review, I knew I wanted to approach this piece a little atypically. Show reviews are often very cut and dry, “the show lasted X amount of time”, “there were Y amount of songs on the setlist”, “the artist did Z outfit and set changes”, and a little blurb about the vibe of the crowd at the end. But I’m writing this from the heart of someone who fell in love with Swift’s self-titled debut album in 2006 and has grown up with her ever since. Undoubtedly, you’ve already read the reviews of the show that boasts a 3 hour, 44 song set and includes countless set and outfit changes. Now you get to read about the show the fans have been hoping and waiting for for nearly 5 years.

Upon arrival at the stadium, you’re met with a sea of sparkles. It’s become customary to wear outfits that are recreation of outfits Taylor has worn on stage and in music videos, outfits inspired by songs or albums, or generally very colorful and sparkly outfits in general. You simply cannot go wrong with sequins here. Prior to and during the show, fans exchanged handmade friendship bracelets, a fan project inspired by the lyric “make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it” from Swift’s song “You’re On Your Own Kid”. Fandoms are all special in their own right, but showing up to a Taylor Swift show truly feels like showing up to a glittery party of 70,000 of your best friends.

Friday night’s show kicked off with two incredible opening acts. First up was Gracie Abrams, who released her debut album “Good Riddance” just over a month ago. She charmed fans with her whimsical twirls across the stage. Despite the size of the massive catwalk, her performance had a very effortless feel to it. Next up was beabadoobee who is most well known for her popular TikTok song “Coffee”. Fans enthusiastically cheered when she took the stage with her guitar and sang along with her as she started to sing.

After what truly felt like forever to the fans who had spent hours and days and months and years waiting, a countdown clock appeared on the screen behind the stage signaling that Swift would soon make her appearance. Seemingly just as eager to see us as we were to see her, she popped up from the center of the stage with the opening line of the show, “it’s been a long time coming”. And thus began the epic 3 hours set that Swift has played nearly every weekend since the tour began.

The set list was divided into “eras” or collection of songs from specific albums. Taylor Swift fans began referring to her albums as “eras” as each one had a noticeable shift in Swift’s appearance, wardrobe, and social media aesthetic accompanying the release of each one. The Lover era was first up in the show, followed by Fearless, evermore, Reputation, Speak Now, Red, folklore, and 1989. After these eras had their moment, Swift made her way to the end of the catwalk to perform two songs acoustic, one on guitar and one on piano. This part of the set has been widely talked about each night, as every show gets a new surprise set of songs. On Friday, we were blessed with the live debut of “The Other Side of the Door”, a song off of her Fearless (Taylor’s Version) album. Next, we got another live debut as she played “coney island” from evermore on piano. She introduced this song as one she wrote with The National after shoutout their new album (on which she has a feature) that was released on Friday.

Swift wrapped up her set with songs from her latest release, Midnights. She describes this album as a collection of stories of sleepless nights throughout her life, exploring all of the feelings that keep us up at night. From falling in love, to fantasizing about revenge, to finding creative inspiration, Midnights is an expansive anthology of the feelings that make us restless, for better or worse.

The show ends with Swift and her dancers donning tinsel jackets and performing her song Karma. Upon its ending, confetti cannons launch 10 different colors of confetti (one to represent each album/era) into a crowd of cheering fans. In her song “Long Live”, Taylor talks about holding on to special moments by saying “confetti falls to the ground, may these memories break our fall”. I think I speak for everyone in attendance when I say The Eras Tour is undoubtedly one of those memories we will be holding on to for years to come.

Setlist

Lover

Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince – (shortened)

Cruel Summer

The Man

You Need to Calm Down -(shortened)

Lover – (spoken intro)

The Archer – (extended outro)

Fearless

Fearless – (shortened)

You Belong With Me

Love Story