Is Taylor Swift having boy trouble? Yeah, probably.
Should she maybe tread a little more carefully when making comments in high-profile interviews with fashion magazines? Apparently so.
But there’s one arena in which the pop-country super-duper-mega-star can do no wrong: on stage, with mic in hand, strumming guitars or tickling ivories, ducking in and out of elaborate costumes, while being screamed at by 14,000 people (mostly female, mainly tweens and teens).
Swift returned to Time Warner Cable Arena on Friday night for her second Charlotte show in just over 16 months, long enough for her to release a new album – “Red” – that has gone platinum four times and yielded two of the hugest hits ever to bleed out of her pen.
That CD’s influence was evident throughout her 112-minute set not just because 12 of the 17 songs came from “Red,” but also in her shoes, her shorts, her tops, her skirts, her dresses, the floodlighting, the tour logos, most of the props, many of her backup dancers’ ensembles, and pretty much anything else that was capable of being displayed in the tour’s color of choice.
Swift still does that bit where, early on, she basks in the cheers of the crowd as if she’s feeling the Caribbean sun hit her face for the first time. She still leans on “Mean” mid-set, and still prefaces it with an artful monologue designed to empower girls who are being bullied. She still waves like a pageant queen as she “flies” around the lower bowl in a contraption suspended by cables from above. Some of it feels slightly over-rehearsed.
But her vocals were clearer and more confident this time around (all live, far as I could tell). And at just 23, she’s wise beyond her years when it comes to planting little moments into a performance that at least feel organic, whether it’s setting off a near-riot by suddenly tossing her top hat into the first few rows or “crowd-surfing” from the forward to the rear stage (hoisted by her dancers).
Another example: After “Sparks Fly” – among the few “older” hits she trotted out – Swift pulled onto the stage a girl named Emma Routh, who I learned afterward suffers from a rare bone marrow disease and has met pop stars Justin Bieber and Christina Aguilera. I’m sure this was not spontaneous; at the same time, it felt spontaneous, and the masses ate it up.
As far as numbers that stood out, her doo-woppy twist on “You Belong With Me” was one of those rare re-imaginings that actually worked; “22” – which Swift flirted and flounced through in tight red pants and a varsity jacket – was a foot-stomping romp; and “I Knew You Were Trouble” started as a pop song but morphed into a rock-tinged, electronic-infused, burn-the-place-down jam, with the star of the night going from a Victorian-era-inspired dress to something … more revealing, with almost no warning.
This tour employs great opening acts (country newcomer Brett Eldredge and British pop star Ed Sheeran), pyrotechnics and hydraulics, sophisticated choreography, a multitude of video screens, almost as many costume changes for the backup dancers as for Swift herself, ranging from drab ’40s-era paparazzi to resplendent circus performers.
But one thing it doesn’t have, surprisingly, is an encore. She donned a glistening, gorgeous ringmaster outfit for smash-hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” killed the thing, then simply flashed her heart-melting smile one last time, waved and vanished.
I could write a whole column on encores, the pretentiousness of encores, how we’ve gotten so used to them that it’s a little weird not to get one; maybe I will someday. But for now I’ll just say this: As long as Swift puts on concerts that hit practically all their marks, that make girls want to be her and guys want to be with her (even if those guys know they’re potential breakup-song fodder) – well, as far as I’m concerned, she can go out however she wants to in the end.
Source
