HOUSTON — Three songs into the second night of a sold-out trifecta at NRG Stadium last weekend, Taylor Swift paused the spectacle long enough to explain its purpose.
The songs – a staggering 44 of them – she would perform over the next three hours “started out about my life,” she said to 62,500 Swifties hanging on her every word. “My goal, when you leave here tonight, is that these songs are about your life.”
They already are.
That’s why Swift’s The Eras Tour immediately sold out every one of its unprecedented multi-night residencies in football stadiums across the country, crashing Ticketmaster in the process.
Taylor Swift performs during The Eras Tour stop at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on April 21, 2023 in Houston, Texas.
Her songs, some written when she was still a teenager, are as relatable as Swift herself, despite her status as the world’s most popular concert attraction.
For all its bells and whistles – and there were lots of bells and whistles – her show at times felt like that pleasant, pretty, effortlessly talented girl from down the hall leading a Saturday night sorority singalong in a very large rec room.
This particular singalong clocked in at three hours and 15 minutes, a marathon of Springsteen-ian duration, with costume changes and choreography.
From conception to design to execution – the burden of which fell mostly on 33-year-old Taylor Alison Swift – The Eras Tour is a next-level concert production she pulled off almost perfectly.
Almost.
In a social media post following the Houston shows, Swift allayed fan concern about a hand injury. While running backstage to a quick-change, she wrote, she tripped on the hem of her dress, fell and cut her palm.
So perfection wasn’t quite achieved. Which, in a way, makes the whole thing even more perfect.
‘Who’s Taylor Swift anyway? Ew.’
Swift spent a few days in New Orleans in December, catching a show at Preservation Hall, recording at a local studio and going out to dinner. But New Orleans is not on The Eras Tour itinerary; ongoing renovations to the Caesars Superdome during the Saints off-season made a local stop impossible.
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