Last night, thanks to the supreme graciousness of one of my Wheaton girlfriends, I attended the final stop on Taylor Swift's Fearless Tour. Said friend, the pop culture mind behind the Friday Night Lights Fan and Ambassador of Kwan blogs, planned the perfect day for us.
We started with a late lunch at El Azteca in Attleboro, one of our favorite spots when we were undergrads at Wheaton. We left there at 4:30pm, knowing the first opening act started at 6:00pm. Since we only needed to drive roughly 10 miles (4 highway exits) we figured that was plenty of time.
We were wrong. Apparently when a stadium's worth of people are on their way to see Taylor Swift, those 10 miles takes two and half hours. So we missed the first two opening acts, American Music Award's 2009 Breakthrough Artist Gloriana, and American Idol alum Kellie Pickler. We did however arrive just in time to see tween sensation Justin Bieber.
When we arrived at the stadium we picked up our tickets at will call. Mere days before the show my magical Wheaton friend received a special deal from the Taylor Swift fan club to buy what are called "pit tickets." These tickets are standing only, and are the area directly in front of the stage where an orchestra pit would usually be (hence the name). We were unsure what the set up would be, but each time we showed our tickets at a check in, they told us to keep walking. So we kept walking until we were literally touching the stage. I almost fainted when I realized Taylor Swift would literally be at arms length from me!
We watched Justin Bieber perform One Time, One Less Lonely Girl, Baby, and a sweet Michael Jackson cover. I know he's 16, but he really looks 12.
When Justin exited we waited 45 minutes for Taylor to come on. In that time we turned around to notice how packed the stadium was. It was truly incredible. I was particuarly struck by all the little girls who came to see Taylor. It was beyond adorable.
The forecast for the evening was rain and thunderstorms, but we only experienced a few light drops while we were waiting and then the skies cleared for the evening. It honestly felt meant to be.
Taylor came out and her first number was a very theatrical version of You Belong With Me. She made a quick change from there into a silver sequin number, the first of many sparkly dresses. She would later shine in a both a red and purple sequin number.
Taylor performed so many of my favorites: Fearless, Fifteen, Hey Stephen, Forever & Always, and Today Was A Fairytale.
She also performed two of her earlier songs Tim McGraw and Teardrops On My Guitar.
Toward the end of the set Taylor and her amazingly talented dancers launched into a period piece come to life in a Victorian take on Love Story. I videotaped the full performance which you can watch below:
There were two things that struck me most about Taylor (besides her awe-inspiring talent): first, she is stunningly beautiful. In person, she literally takes your breath away. Secondly, she is the most humble celebrity I've ever encountered in-person or during media interviews. At the show she not only thanked the crowd constantly, toward the end, she was so overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, she actually started to cry.
In addition to her recognition of the fan support, she performed a number in the aisle of a rear section of the stadium and then hugged as many fans as she could as she walked down the aisle to a raised platform at the back of the stadium where she performed three more songs. It would not surprise me if it was her idea to make sure the fans at the back got to see her as more than a tiny ant on stage.
Minus the traffic disaster (which was out of Miss Swift's control), I give this show a perfect 10 out of 10. The pit tickets were insane (hello, VIP bracelet), the energy of the crowd was electric, Taylor was luminous and her genuine, humble nature was nothing short of inspiring.
When she tours again, I hope I'll be lucky enough to be part of it.
