This week, I was one of those lucky few chosen to go to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour show, or at least that is what it felt like with all the hullaballoo of ticket sales and social media posts, and all the extra people who rock up outside the stadium just to hear Swift play. I attended the Friday night show in Sydney, which was delayed slightly with rain, luckily in my favour as we were running late to see the concert! So, this is post is a quick review followed by a couple of lessons from going.

Concert Review

I’ll start by saying that I really enjoyed the concert. I’m just not sure that I enjoyed it quite as much as everyone else there! The concert celebrates Taylor Swift across 4 albums, and has a very high production value. I don’t think you could be disappointed going to it, but as someone who is not a diehard swiftie, it felt like being an atheist in a Church where Jesus is personally giving the sermon – you get caught up in the worship, but you also feel like you’ve missed something by not being as familiar with the holy texts.
I really enjoyed the structure, and while there is no intermission there’s enough range in songs where you get breathers in between the bigger dance numbers. My favourite part of the show were her two acoustic numbers, where she plays just guitar and piano (and for our show she was joined by support act Sabrina Carpenter, who had her act cancelled due to rain at our show). These really showed her talent, her ability to come up with mashups that people hadn’t thought of, and demonstrate that she is an incredible musician, whereas the rest of the show focuses more on the performance, not the music. This may not sound like a major difference, but I found it much easier to connect to the acoustic songs, compared to the big stadium show. If Swift ever does an acoustic tour, that would be more my speed!

The Importance of Homework

I had kept meaning to listen to the albums on this tour, and unfortunately I just didn’t get around to it, which negatively affected my enjoyment of the show (which is my own fault!) It feels a little like imposter syndrome – that I didn’t deserve to be there because I didn’t know the songs as well! As the concert went on, there was enough to keep me engaged even with the songs I didn’t know as well. Still, next concert I will be making sure to listen to everything I can beforehand.

Practicalities

I had trouble getting in because I wasn’t able to add my ticket to my apple wallet, and then the ticketek app wouldn’t load once we got to the gate. From now on, I’ll be printing any tickets for the concerts where this can be an issue – just to be safe. I’d really recommend doing this as well just in case it happens to you! It felt awful being caught out like that, and while there is support there, we found it quicker to try and connect to ticketek compared to standing in line.
Also, always allow more time than you expect to get to the venue! We were lucky that it rained and we ended up with plenty of time to get there. While there were more buses and trains, the train was still packed with a massive line to get to the venue.

What are some other concert tips you have? Feel free to share them in the comments below.