Over the past couple of years, there’s one item that’s stayed at the absolute top of my bucket list: to see Taylor Alison Swift performing her world-renowned Eras Tour, which began in 2023 and offered 149 performances until it concluded last December. Unfortunately I was never able to see any of those performances. I was waitlisted for the Santa Clara shows and couldn’t convince my parents to buy shockingly high resale tickets.
But if I could have anything in the world my first answer would always be watching any performance of Taylor Swift live. People are never surprised by my answer, because the only article of clothing I tend to wear nearly every day is my gray Eras Tour sweatshirt.
When “Shake It Off” was first released, I was smitten by the bridge — after all, which sassy 5-year-old doesn’t love a good ol’ rap break? I like to think of it as the introduction song to my villain origin story. Back then, I would strut around the house with hands on my hips singing “my ex man brought his new girlfriend” like I owned the world.
But it wasn’t until the last few years — when I first started relating more to her songs — that I became a full-fledged Swiftie.
If I could design Swift’s ultimate concert set list, it would consist of talented openers, dramatic entrances (possibly more than once), many acoustic songs and too many So High School performances.
To open the show, songwriting powerhouses Gracie Abrams and Sabrina Carpenter would be my No. 1 picks to set the perfect mood.
I’d love a medley of Abram’s entire “Secret of Us” album, along with “tehe” and “i know it won’t work” from her last album, Good Riddance.
If this was followed by another medley of Carpenter’s two most recent albums — Emails I can’t Send and Short N’ Sweet — in their entirety, I just know I wouldn’t be able to contain my excitement. I’d ideally wish for Carpenter to sing one of her least favorite songs, “Thumbs,” which I had an insatiable addiction to at 7 years old.
If I somehow survive the mindblowing openers, Swift’s entrance could only happen two different ways.
It could start like her Speak Now Tour, which was nothing short of dramatic (in Conan Gray’s wise words, “why would you deal with any emotion in a logical way when you could have the option of absolutely losing your mind”). Just picture this: Drums crescendoing to a forte, lights dimming the stage and Swift appears from beneath the stage, staring dead into the camera. While she plays the opening line of “drop everything now,” fireworks explode over the stadium. How amazing would that be?
Alternatively, Swift could have a Reputation-style entry. The lights flicker ominously; a snake hisses through the night. A deep bass thrums through the arena. The screen shows nothing but the slow-motion close-up of Swift’s heels as she steps forward. The camera slowly pans upward until she stares dead into the lens and utters those fateful words: “Are you ready for it?” Cue absolute pandemonium. At this point, I’d probably be lying flat on the floor, unconscious and overwhelmed by emotion.
Through the various livestreams I’ve seen, I enjoy every song she performs live — though, admittedly, when I went to watch the Eras Tour movie back in October 2023, I found the Folklore section to be a little unlikable with a live band. I would have preferred just a guitar or piano and her voice.
But if I had to keep songs accompanied by bands, I would have replaced “last great American dynasty” with a longer version of “illicit affairs” or a full version of “the 1.”
I will say, though, my greatest complaint about her actual show was how she only played the 38-second bridge of “So High School.” I would undoubtedly need a produced version of the lyrical masterpiece. While I know this is an unpopular take, I would need her to sing it live at least three times before I’d even be close to satisfied — complete with full choreography.
For my money — nothing compares to Swift’s voice alone with a guitar or piano. Her acoustic section is the most magical part of the show, but I’d do anything to hear another rendition of “So High School” with the guitar, at least five times (she hasn’t sung it with guitar before, so this makes up for it). While I do enjoy her piano mashups, I always feel a deeper connection to the music when she sings with her guitar. My top favorite mashups would be “The Moment I Knew” with “I Almost Do” and “So High School” with “The Very First Night.”
No matter the setlist, I’d give anything just to see Swift sing live, and her next epic tour is surely only a year or two away, right? Until that day arrives, I’ll keep rewatching Eras Tour mashups, hunting for surprise song videos online and wearing my dirty but irreplaceable gray Eras Tour sweatshirt.
