Project Description

TAYLOR SWIFT

@ MARVEL STADIUM, VIC

26/10/18

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Kelsey Hentschel.

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Taylor Swift’s record shattering Reputation tour, kicked off its Australian leg in Perth earlier  this month before moving across to Victoria for the home stretch of this unbelievably successful tour. This tour has been smashing attendance records & grossing ticket sales across the world since the very first show in Phoenix, AZ. And since attending the show myself its not hard to see why! This stadium tour has set the bar higher than her 110ft stage.  The singer, who in recent years has found herself immersed in tabloid drama, it was a love letter to her loyal unwavering fans.

Taylor Swift has the ability to connect with fans with her music the way i have scarcely found with any other artist. As we scanned out tickets into the venue every single patron was given a LED wristband. The bands began to flicker and dance in patterns throughout Taylor’s set. The singer made it a point to explain her desire for these light up bracelets. She simply wanted to be able to see each and every single person in the whopping sold out 53,000 cap venue. The LED bands truly added to the shows experience and it was so cool to see the tiny dots even all the way up the back knowing that those little flickering lights belonged to fans as well.

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Opening the show with gritty bass heavy track ‘…Ready For It?‘ was perfectly fitting. The spectacle of just a lone Taylor Swift in a black hooded glitter leotard seductively snaking her was across the stage welcoming us to the tour singing out to the masses of ‘Swifties’ “Baby let the games begin”. And just like that we were off!

 

This tour had some of the biggest stages i’ve ever seen in my years of frequenting stadium concerts. Swift had two intricate cages which flew her across the crowd to her B stage. The mid show stint on these slightly smaller stages were still a huge spectacle, featuring two giant inflatable snakes either side of the stadium. It was here where Taylor sang her ‘secret song’ which for us Melburnians was ‘Im Only Me When I’m With You‘ off Swifts debut album . A song Taylor admitted to writing at they ripe age of 13. Admitting that many of the concert goers probably weren’t even born when she wrote it. It was an exciting throwback for us veteran fans.

Reputation, Swift’s sixth album, is a huge leap from the singers usual bright eyed pop fuelled love songs, branching into a fresh synth-driven body of work that sees Taylor growing up and maturing into a strong unapologetic woman.  Upon release of the album i was wary of the change in sound but after seeing the tracks performed live in concert, it begs the question; were they were specifically designed with this type of stadium tour in mind?

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The show is pure spectacle and I wouldn’t expect anything less for the ticket price, with fireworks and pyrotechnics going off from the very beginning of the show throughout. I was honestly wowed at the amount of extra element this tour included, especially the working fountain in the last act. For ‘Shake It Off‘ confetti cannons showered the crowd as openers Charli XCX and Georgia Nott from BROODS joined the singer on stage making it a full girl party!

Taylor managed to squeeze so many songs into the show that i can barely remember everything she covered. Utilising medleys to pack in as many of her hits as she possibly could, I was often left a little disappointed at not getting to hear so many of the full songs, however given the alternative of possibly not hearing some of my favourite song, i cant complain.

The moments in between songs while Swift connected to with the audience, are what make shows like this so special. Being able to see your favourite artist address you as a fan is what we really remember. Taylor showed off her talent playing acoustic guitar for ‘Dancing With Our Hands Tied‘ and her skills at a huge wooden piano for one of the final songs, a medley of  ‘Long Live‘ & ‘New Year’s Day‘. Swift Looked so comfortable up on that stage. Having seen the artist many times before, this tour felt much more genuine and less forced than the previous tours. I even shed a tear when Swift thanked her roadies, her sound technicians, the venue staff, and most importantly (in her eyes), us fans! It was so heartfelt, you could tell she was extremely grateful to get the chance to do these tours.

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The show came to a close with my favourite tracks ‘Getaway Car‘, and ‘Call It What You Want‘. These saw Taylor and her dancers splashing around in a huge working fountain, adding back classic elements of romance to the new grunge era of Taylor Swift.

I fell in love with Taylor all over again. This show was next level amazing. I cant wait to see whats next from this superstar. Its going to be pretty hard to one up this tour, but if anyone can do it, it’s going to be Ms Swift!

 

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