Since 2008, Taylor Swift has made a splash in the music industry. Having started off in the country genre with songs such as "Tim McGraw" and "Our Song," Taylor has made quite the transition, now being played on top 40 and local stations that are mainly only known for pop songs. Not having released an album since "Speak Now," which debuted at number one on the Billboard top 200 chart, Swift released her newest album, "Red," in October of 2012. Following the album, it was decided she was going to go on a tour, appropriately named the "Red Tour," at the beginning of March 2013. Traveling with her on the 66 date tour is friend Ed Sheeran, known for his songs "The A Team" and "Lego House." In addition to the dynamic duo, the tour will feature up and coming country and pop stars rotated throughout dates of the tour.
Starting off 19 dates of the tour is Illinois native, Brett Eldredge. He does a brief set of a couple songs, interacting with the crowd and telling a little about himself. Even though not many people were in the stadium at that time, he played like it was a sold out show. He ended the set with his newest single "Don't Ya," getting people on their feet. Although he reminds quite a few people of Luke Bryan, this rising country star is his own performer.
Adding a flare to the tour is British musician Ed Sheeran. Most artists like to start the set upbeat and end it upbeat, to keep the crowd moving. Not Ed. He starts off his setlist with his newest single "Give Me Love," and states "My job is to entertain you and your job is to be entertained.... for the next 40 minutes, you are my gospel choir." The crowd joins in singing "Oooohs" and attempts to harmonize along with him. The next songs on the set are "Drunk" and "Lego House." Beginning with the more upbeat songs, he performs a cover of "Be My Husband" originally by Nina Simone. Listening to him live, while he's performing these songs, you'd think he had a full band behind him, when in fact, he's only got himself, his guitar, a microphone and a loop pedal. Using the loop pedal, he records the strings, the beats, and the extra vocal parts of the songs he needs - all done right in front of your eyes. Maintaining use of the loop pedal, he begins his song "You Need Me, I Don't Need You," mixing a few songs together, including a few lines of the recent chart-topping hit "Thrift Shop." Ending the set, he gets the crowd singing in unison to his hit "The A Team."
Building suspense, Taylor's set starts off with her behind a red curtain. All you see is the silhouette, and all you hear is cheering and the beginning of her song "State of Grace." After finishing the song and standing and appreciating the crowd, she begins to sing "Holy Ground." Reflecting the tour and album name, she begins to speak of the next song she's about to perform. "This tour is based around this one specific color," she starts, "I tend to match colors to emotions. Blue is sad, yellow and gold are calming and warm, and then there's red." The crowd cheers as she finishes her brief speech and grabs her guitar. "Red is a whirlwind of emotions. It can mean love and infatuation, but also reflect jealousy and envy and revenge!" A burst of red comes from all ends of the arena as she begins to sing the title track of her album. She moves on, throwing back to her second album, "Fearless," by singing "You Belong With Me." The lights go down while she quickly changes behind the stage. It's as if you're watching an old documentary or an old film. Singing her song "The Lucky One" she gives no hints to who or what the song could be about. She does another quick change and grabs her banjo to begin playing "Mean." She did a little intro describing the song by reflecting back on old memories. "When I was younger, I thought that when you were older, all the bullies would be gone." She set forth with the set singing a mash-up of "Stay Stay Stay" and "Ho Hey" by the Lumineers and stemmed from that into her newest single "22."
Being carried by her dancers around the stadium, Taylor shook hands with fans as she passed by and ended up on her "Stage B," placed right in front of the first section off the floor. "Stage B" is where she performed "Tim McGraw," her duet with Ed Sheeran in their song called "Everything Has Changed," slow song "Begin Again" and soon began the intro to her long-lived song "Sparks Fly." Carried across the arena by a stand suspended above the audience, she continued the song until she finally landed back on the orignial stage and began a dubstep intro to the upbeat hit "I Knew You Were Trouble." Slowing down the pace, she did a quick costume change and ended up at her piano at the top of the staircase that was used as the stage to perform the emotional "All Too Well," rumored to be about ex Jake Gyllenhal. Rounding off the night, she finished with songs "Love Story" and "Treacherous" and as an encore performed the song we've all grown to know "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and dropped red and white heart-shaped confetti on the whole crowd. If you have the chance, I suggest going to one of these shows. I promise it will be VERY difficult to disappoint you.
TOUR DATES:
March 27 - Newark, NJ
March 28 - Newark, NJ
March 29 - Newark, NJ
April 10 - Miami, FL
April 11 - Orlando, FL
April 12 - Orlando, FL
April 18 - Atlanta, GA
April 19 - Atlanta, GA
April 20 - Tampa, FL
April 25 - Cleveland, OH
April 26 - Indianapolis, IN
April 27 - Lexington, KY
May 4 - Detroit, MI
May 7 - Louisville, KY
May 8 - Columbus, OH
May 11 - Washington DC
May 12 - Washington DC
May 16 - Houston, TX
May 21 - Austin, TX
May 22 - San Antonio, TX
May 25 - Dallas, TX
May 28 - Glendale, AZ
May 29 - Glendale, AZ
June 1 - Salt Lake City, UT
June 2 - Denver, CO
June 14 - Toronto, Ontario
June 15 - Toronto, Ontario
June 22 - Winnipeg, Manitoba
June 25 - Edmonton, Alberta
June 26 - Edmonton, Alberta
June 29 - Vancouver, British Columbia
July 6 - Pittsburgh, PA
July 13 - East Rutherford, NJ
July 19 - Philadelphia, PA
July 20 - Philadelphia, PA
July 26 - Foxborough, MA
July 27 - Foxborough, MA
August 1 - Des Moines, IA
August 2 - Kansas City, MO
August 3 - Kansas City, MO
August 6 - Wichita, KS
August 7 - Tulsa, OK
August 10 - Chicago, IL
August 15 - San Diego, CA
August 19 - Los Angeles, CA
August 20 - Los Angeles, CA
August 23 - Los Angeles, CA
August 24 - Los Angeles, CA
August 27 - Sacramento, CA
August 30 - Portland, OR
August 31 - Tacoma, WA
September 6 - Fargo, ND
September 7 - St. Paul, MN
September 8 - St. Paul, MN
September 12 - Greensboro, NC
September 13 - Raleigh, NC
September 14 - Charlottesville, Virginia
September 19 - Nashville, TN
September 20 - Nashville, TN
September 21 - Nashville, TN
No comments:
Post a Comment