On Saturday, April 29th (keep that date in mind), Taylor Swift graced the stage at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia for her second night in the ATL during her highly anticipated Eras Tour.
Glitter and sparkles flooded “The A” starting on Thursday night and stayed all weekend. From the College Park Marta Station to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Swifties were buzzing.
The news of the Ticketmaster fiasco that left many of the 12-time Grammy winner’s biggest fans scrambling for tickets is about seven months old, but the situation was far from resolved on Saturday night as many of them crowded areas such as Centennial Park and the CNN Center, holding out hope for a miracle.
Beabadoobee was the first artist to take the stage, followed by Gracie Abrams.
At 7:50 p.m. EDT, the moment that Swifties from all over the Southeastern United States had been anticipating for half a decade happened as Swift took the stage.
The “Lover” era was up first. Swift played six numbers from her 2019 album: “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” “Cruel Summer,” “The Man,” “You Need to Calm Down,” “Lover” and “The Archer.”
A plastic bracelet was given to each fan as they entered the stadium. It did not take long to find out why as the moment Swift reached the first chorus of her first song of the evening, a wide variety of vibrant colors filled the air. Similar bracelets have been used before, most notably during Coldplay’s “Sky Full of Stars,” but the Swifties roaring approval let the multi-platinum recording artist know that she made a good decision to incorporate them into her own production.
Next up was the “Fearless” era, one of the albums that Swift has rerecorded in her “Taylor’s Version” series. The title track was up first, followed by timeless hits “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story.”
The special effects made multiple showcases, most notably during Love Story when Swift reached the famous lead-up to the final chorus to mimic how the 65,639-strong crowd felt when Romeo finally gets Juliet.
The next stop on the journey through the eras of Swift’s illustrious career took the crowd to “Evermore,” an album released during the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Swift selected “‘Tis the D*** Season,” “Willow,” “Marjorie,” “Champagne Problems” and “Tolerate It.”
The crowd’s usage of their phone flashlights during “Marjorie,” a tribute to Swift’s late grandmother, left her visibly emotional and she shared her appreciation with the sold-out Atlanta crowd.
As Swift was preparing to begin “Champagne Problems,” her earpiece malfunctioned. She did not miss a beat, however, promptly deciding to entertain the crowd with a joke while her sound crew “swiftly” took care of the problem.
“Reputation” was the last album Swift had the chance to do a tour for before the start of the pandemic. For this particular show, she represented the 2017 album with “…Ready for it?,” “Delicate,” “Don’t Blame Me” and “Look What You Made Me Do.”
The “Speak Now” era was short-lived, as Swift only performed “Enchanted.” The stunning ballgown Swift donned while playing the track from the 2010 album was just one of many examples of her using an outfit to tell a story.
The 2012 album, “Red,” featured songs “22,” “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “I Knew You Were Trouble” and a 10-minute rendition of “All Too Well.”
Swift’s backup dancers played a particularly big role in this portion of the show.
The next era was “Folklore,” which was released in July of 2020. Swift played “The 1,” “Betty,” “The Last Great American Dynasty,” “August," "Illicit Affairs,” “My Tears Ricochet” and “Cardigan.”
The stage set featured a cabin during this portion that Swift referred to as “The Folklore Cabin.”
“Thank you for allowing us to bring the Folklore Cabin to Atlanta, Georgia,” Swift said during the show.
Swift’s most popular album, “1989,” represented the next era. She selected “Style,” “Blank Space,” “Shake It Off,” “Wildest Dreams” and “Bad Blood.” The number of hit songs was evident. It seemed as though everyone in the tightly packed stadium knew every word to these five songs.
The “surprise songs” portion of the show followed. Swift has selected two songs from her discography to perform acoustically at each show on the tour, not playing the same song twice. Swift joked how despite never being described as “sporty” or “athletic” at any point in her life, people are placing sports-like betting odds on which songs she will play during this part of the show on any given night.
At the top of the article I instructed you to keep the date in mind. The first surprise song was “High Infidelity” from the “Midnights,” album that was released in October. In the song, Swift asks “Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?”. This batch of Swifties was the first to ever hear the song played live and it happened to be on the correlating date. Swift has been known for her famous attention to detail throughout her career and this was another perfect example.
The second “surprise song” was “Gorgeous” from the “Reputation” album. Swift played this song on piano, and despite mixing up the lyrics, kept her cool by joking about it with the audience and restarting the song from the beginning and killing it.
Swift performed her famous “stage dive” before taking the audience into the final era of the evening, represented by her most recent album “Midnights.” This was the longest era as Swift performed seven songs: “Lavender Haze,” “Anti-Hero,” “Midnight Rain,” “Vigilante S***,” “Bejeweled,” “Mastermind,” and “Karma” to close the show.
Swift performed for three hours and 17 minutes. It would be difficult to find someone who did not believe that they got their money's worth. The pure musical and performing talent combined with the excellent execution of special effects made for a one-of-a-kind experience that fans will not soon forget.
