The Eras Tour

I bought tickets to Taylor Swifts N3 Stockholm concern the moment I could, and it’s been something I’ve been looking forward to for months. The outfit suggestions for men are hilariously low-key dismissive, Cheifs jerseys, t-shorts saying swifty dad or swifty boyfriend. Very little actually for the man who’s there by choice not obligation. So, I chose a Anti-Hero themed shirt, retro seventies vibes, with my gold jewlerry, necklace and godl rimmed aviators it would do. Adding to that 8 home made friendship bracelets, glittering hairspray in my beard and gold nail varnish gave a nice tribute to Bejewelled.

I had VIP Floor tickets, which really just means you get a few bits of nice merch and earlier access to the stadium floor to get a better spot to stand. Though the term “VIP” is stretched pretty thin with the number of people it includes. There was a huge crowd ahead of us in the line when we arrived at 3pm ahead of the 4:30 early access. In the end we were perhaps six rows away from the stage.

Unsurprisingly there is a ban on pro-grade cameras, and so I was armed only with my Samsung phone and a growing sense of frustration with its limitations. I’d perhaps have been happier to leave it in my pocket rather than try and get footage.

Paramore

Another musical sensation from Nashville Tenassee, a small city the size of Gothenburg perhaps only topped in musical impact by Liverpool. Paramore have been rocking the world stage for 20 years. They did an amazing job of getting the crowd excited before the headline act.

Taylor Swift

The Eras Tour, unsurprisingly covers the different Eras of Taylor’s music, currently counted as nine (folklore & evermore are combined into a shared folkmore Era). Taylor somehow manages to dance, sing and play multiple instruments across the nearly four hours of her set without once showing any sign that this is a difficult thing to manage. Each Era is marked by a costume change, though minor changes in outfit also occur during many of the Eras as she transitions from song to song.

Lover

We got five songs from the Lover Era, Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince, Cruel Summer, The Man, You Need to Calm Down, and Lover.

Fearless

Three songs from the Fearless album, Fearless, You Belong With Me and the crowd pleaser Love Story. (No proposals in my section of the audience)

Red

Four from Red: 22 inclduing her now famous hat swap, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, I Knew You Were Trouble, and the full ten minute version of All Too Well which had half the crowd in tears.

Speak Now

Enchanted

Poor Speak Now’s Era is brief and only features Enchanted. Somehow Taylor’s vunerability in this song makes it seem that she is, in fact, enchanted to meet each and every one of us.

reputation

Reputation starts with a dramatic video of a snake, before we get four songs ...Ready for It?, Delicate, Don't Blame Me and Look What You Made Me Do. Not my personal favoruite era, but Don’t Blame Me has been the song stuck in my head since the concert.

folkmore

Singing from her imaginary swedish cabin (which got a roar of appreciation from the crowd even if it wasn’t in proper falun red.) folklore and evermore transitioned seamlessly as she traded flowing dress for deep green cloak. We got cardigan, betty. champagne problems, august, illlicit affairs, my tears ricochet, marjorie and finally willow

1989

Rocking the Swedish colours for the 1989 Era, we got Style, Blank Space, Shake It Off, Wildest Dreams and of course Bad Blood. 1989 is probably the era that got the crowd moving the most!

TTPD

Her newest Era, with some strong tributes to silent movies and Clara Bow in the choreography gave us quite a few of her songs from this album, But Daddy I Love Him, So High School, Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?, Down Bad, Fortnight, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived and I Can Do It With a Broken Heart and despite the lyrics, even she encouraged the crowd to chant “MORE”. The album has been divisive amongst fans, but live it’s incredible.

Acoustic Set

Perhaps a way of brinigng in Debut without actually doing any songs from Debut, the fourty minute acoustic set is an incredible testimant to Taylor as an artist. Playing live and alone on stage, both Guitar and Piano she performs new material each and every show. We were incredibly fortunate getting to hear:

Max Martin Medley

Dispelling long standing rumours of a feud, Taylors first acoustic song was a medley of songs writen with famed Swedish songwriter Max Martin, who was hidden away in the crowd somwhere.

Covering “Message in a Bottle,” the first song she ever wrote with Martin, which was a vault song and didn’t get released until 2021’s Red (Taylor’s Version). Followed by “How You Get the Girl” and “New Romantics,” both from 1989,

How Did It End

Taking her guitar off caused some kind of issue and we were told to ‘talk amongst ourselves’ whilst she sorted it out. Walking over to the piano she followed the cheery medley with a song from The Tortured Poets Department. “I’ve never performed this one live before,” she told us and then went straight into “How Did It End?” Haunting and intimate.

Midnights

The final era for us, Midnights, covered Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero (with outstanding use of the giant screens to have Monster on a Hill taylor face singing Taylor), Midnight Rain, Vigilante Shit, Bejeweled, and Mastermind. Seemingly about to end, she promised one last song, and I don’t think anyone in the audience was surprised by which one, the glaringly missing. Karma. We got the line "Karma is the guy on the chiefs" telling us that Travis Kelce was somewhere in the audience, probobly with Max Martin making the kind of awkward smalltalk to men make when the only thing they have in common is their shared friendship with an absent woman.

The show was incredible in a number of ways, the organisation and fluidity of it, the use of sets, lighting, audio and the crowd themselves and the sheer talent, stamina and authenticity of Taylor Swift herself.

Two days before the show, a part-time player in a niche local sport, Harrison Butker, gave a deeply insensitive, inflammatory and flat out ignorant speech in which he referenced Taylor Swift in his crusade to have women give up on this careers and independence nonsense and go back to being barefoot and pregnant like his god apparently demands. Naturally there is outcry to this opinion, including from the Nuns at the school he spoke at. As of writing there were 212,000 signatures demanding his removal from the Chiefs (who have made no comment whatsever on his behaviour). A laughable 15,000 have signed a petition to keep him.