In an Arena Performance, Taylor Swift’s Nerves of Steel
NEWARK — An arena show, for all the planning that goes into it, is still a tightrope walk — there is nowhere to hide once the lights go up. So when things began to go wrong for Taylor Swift about midway through her Wednesday night concert at the Prudential Center here, the question wasn’t whether she’d sweat, but would it show.
She’d just begun to perform “Everything Has Changed” with Ed Sheeran, the cheeky British singer-songwriter who is also one of her opening acts, when the sound slowly began to melt — Ms. Swift in one direction; Mr. Sheeran in another; the band, all the way at the other end of the arena, in a third. Technology, the kind that lets performers hear one another in loud rooms, was failing them.
For his part, Mr. Sheeran looked despondent, or distracted, or just dopey. Ms. Swift was having none of that. She leaned in to him, whispering encouragement or direction or both, and steadied the performance, keeping it afloat amid the warring scores until the song ended, and Mr. Sheeran ambled off with a shrug.
It was a scale of mishap you don’t often see at a show of this size, choreographed down to the last flurry of confetti. But it was reassuring to learn that Taylor Swift off-script is very much like Taylor Swift on-script: not just the brains of the operation, but the brawn, too, the unflappable force that ensures stuck landings.
She is 23 now, and she doesn’t do the hand-to-gasping-mouth thing she used to every time a roomful of people clapped for her. She soaks in her adulation more honestly, as she did at the beginning and end of this two-hour show, regarding the small girls with the homemade flashing LED signs and the bigger girls with the blossoming confidence (and also all the parents) with wonder but also certainty, seeming to nod contentedly even when her head’s perfectly still.
This tour is to promote “Red” (Big Machine), her fourth album, which sold 1.2 million copies in its first week of release last October, and has already been certified four times platinum. It’s a strong album, but also her most scattered, with the widest range of moods.
On record, that range was distracting, but in a king-size spectacle, the juxtapositions have power, one theatrical scene after the next. Visually, the themes are still drawn from a young person’s fantasy — music-box figures coming to life, a gaggle of floating percussionists that suggest Cirque du Taylor, the Mad Hatter in an “Alice in Wonderland” motif. Throughout the show, her male dancers were often chasing her but only barely touching her when they caught up. She does not return their affections. She is not yet a figure of proactive libidinal agency.
As in her songs, she is reactive. “I’m Taylor,” she said early in the night. “I write songs about my feelings.” On “Red,” those feelings run hot: enticing danger on “Treacherous,” joyous resentment on “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” resparked optimism on “Begin Again.” All of those song stood out here, as did “22,” about throwing caution to the wind. (Only a handful of songs lagged, including “Starlight” and “The Lucky One.”)
Ms. Swift’s voice is stronger than it’s ever been, and also sturdier; the vocal slips of old are all but gone. Over the course of the show, she played electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, banjo, piano, and a big floor tom. But for someone who can do so much, it can be surprising to realize just how few places there are to go. She stands atop a tall peak with potential missteps in every direction. As a young woman making mostly wholesome songs loved by young girls, Ms. Swift has to find ways to grow up that don’t leave those who follow her in the lurch.
She may use genre as a catalyst. She remade “You Belong With Me,” one of her older hits, into a 1960s girl-group harmony piece. At the end of “Stay Stay Stay,” she sang a bit of “Ho Hey,” from the folk-pop crossover act the Lumineers. Like Mr. Sheeran, the Lumineers are low hanging pop-rock fruit. But also, apart from “Mean,” a lite-bluegrass song that’s become one of Ms. Swift centerpieces, turning a song about modesty into a major statement, Ms. Swift doesn’t aspire to sound organic.
Even still, it’s almost certain she won’t grow into a Madonna or Katy Perry. It remains to be seen when she might flower into a Natalie Maines, an Alanis Morissette, a Patty Griffin, a Kathleen Hanna. Ms. Swift isn’t ready to answer that just yet — she still has arenas to soothe, and anxieties of her own to purge. That was clear from a pair of songs near the end of the night, both laser-targeted assassinations of ne’er-do-well boys.
First was “I Knew You Were Trouble,” one of the great pop songs of recent months, and Ms. Swift’s most blatant statement about her increasingly evanescent relationship to country. It’s a ferocious, thumping song, and it’s already done more for introducing dubstep to new ears and mainstreaming it than all the Electric Daisy Carnivals put together.
That was followed, in the night’s sharpest transition, by “All Too Well,” which Ms. Swift sang vividly from behind a piano, channeling her inner Carole King. Her face was splashed across a huge videoscreen, and it showed credible dark emotion. When she recalled about an ex, “You tell me about your past/ Thinking your future was me,” she sneered visibly. It was the moment where the child molted her soft exterior to become an adult. No tears. No sweat.
There is no shortage of reasons to dislike Taylor Swift. It could be her public score-settling with ex-boyfriends, her inability to take even the gentlest joshing from Amy Poehler, or even that irritatingly smug pout she’s been wearing on the red carpet throughout awards season.
But when it comes to performing live, the haters have got nothing on her, and that blossoming confidence was on show in all its multifaceted glory last night at the Prudential Center in Newark.
The show that Swift has put together to promote the “Red” album is so much more than a mere pop concert. Through her various costume changes, choreographed set pieces and even the odd magic trick, the native Pennsylvanian has created something closer to a giant musical carnival.
Almost as impressive as her Barnum & Bailey world is Swift’s power and surprising versatility as a musician. It was apparent from the start as she and her band assuredly delivered “State of Grace” in a way that had more in common with radio-friendly alternative rock. For a moment, you could close your eyes and quite easily think you were at a Killers show.
That flexibility was almost constantly in evidence, whether it was through the girl-group reworking of “You Belong With Me” or even the dubstep touches applied to “Trouble.” No matter what she did or where she went, Swift’s often-criticized vocals never seemed to waver. The fragile acoustic county starlet of years gone by seems to have been all but buried and you get the feeling that if Kanye tried to invade her stage now, Swift would not only put a boot in his behind, but write a megahit about it and the send him the platinum disc, signed “Screw You. Kisses, Taylor.”
However, there were moments when the tightly rehearsed show suffered under the weight of Swift’s anvil-like earnestness. “Hi, I’m Taylor and I write songs about my feelings,” was her introduction to the packed house, and while it’s the fuel for some of her best songs, it also sparks some of her most cringe-worthy “banter.” Hearing her talk about the catty girls at school as a precursor to “Mean” felt more about following the script than baring the soul, while the babble about rejuvenation and new beginnings that went before — you guessed it — “Begin Again” was barely coherent.
So, although her motivational speaking is suspect, Swift’s dominance as a pop performer certainly is not, and that was emphasized again as she closed out the show with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
The sound of 18,000 fans joyously singing along only underlined that Swift has written one of those rare choruses that will see an artist through any kind of career-apocalypse.
Not that she needs to worry about such things right now. On last night’s evidence, Taylor Swift seems virtually blast-proof.
Taylor Swift's 'Red' tour open its 3-night stand at the Prudential Center
Swift's message has resounded with teen girls and made her the ultimate incarnation of both their frustrations and their aspirations. They'll be on hand to hear her preach her gospel over the next two nights at the Prudetial Center.
Taylor Swift wasn't kidding when she titled her new tour "Red."
At the first of three shows at the Prudential Center in Newark Wednesday, she featured that color in her shoes, lipstick, evening gown, guitar, the backup singers' dresses, as well as in various lighting schemes. Even the word itself burned across giant screens as the night began.
Clearly, we're witnessing a woman who knows the value of staying on message — a point her lyrics have driven home for years. Nearly every song last night found Swift singing about love that hurt her, only to empower her.
"Love is a ruthless game," she sang in the first song of the night, "State of Grace." "Unless you play it good and right."
It's a winking message that has resounded strongly enough to make Swift the single most identifiable figure for teen girls in modern pop. She's the ultimate incarnation of their frustrations and aspirations.
Small wonder that screamy young demo made up much of the sold-out crowd at last night's show. It likely will as well at two other shows to be held at the 18,000-seat arena tonight and tomorrow. Swift brings this same show back, in a super-sized version, to the 50,000 MetLife Stadium July 13.
The singer draws a crowd so huge, in part, by playing elder sister to them. At 23, she's too experienced for the un-nuanced cycle of love, pain and revenge represented in her rather plain songs. But that only helps her to meet her audience at eye level.
At the same time, Swift has greatly expanded both her dramatic presentation and her sound.
The "Red" tour far outdoes all her previous shows in costume changes, fireworks, and theatrical backdrops. Swift featured an elaborate and elegant set up for “The Lucky One,” where she played a vintage young Hollywood star hounded by the press. In another section, she turned her old hit "You Belong with Me” into a '60s girl group, street corner serenade.
That was one of the few older hits Swift allowed in the show. She spent most of the night singing cuts from the "Red" CD, which boasts a rockier sound than before. Last night's songs showed about as much country influence as you'd find in the music of Tibet. Some songs aimed for the anthemic quality of U2, replete with pinging guitars.
Swift personalized her broad new pieces with her usual cheeky clues about men they address. “I Knew You Were Trouble,” for one, supposedly references her fleeting romance with One Direction’s Harry Styles.
It's a smartly mixed message such songs offer. On the one hand, the coded star allusions feel elite. But they also bring her fans into an exclusive circle. That mix of privilege and candor has emboldened Swift's brand as the modern singer who best bridges high romance with every-day, teenage dreams.
Taylor Swift takes on critics during Newark concert: 'They're building you up just to knock you down. But they haven't yet.'
by Dalton Ross
It was a sea of red as Taylor Swift kicked off the first of three shows at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ last night as part of her Red tour — red spotlights, giant red flags, sparkly red dress, sparkly red microphone, sparkly red guitar, even a sparkly red violin bow…you get the point. The concert featured most of Swift’s new album, a soulful new arrangement on one of her biggest hits, one technical gaffe on a duet with opening act Ed Sheeran, and several references to the media’s treatment of her song topics and personal life.
After opening the concert with “State of Grace” and “Holy Ground,” Swift addressed the screaming masses before launching into the title track from her recent Red album: “I write about my feelings. I’m told I have a lot of feelings,” she said with a smile. “The 13,000 of you opted into hearing about my feelings for the next two hours.” And she wasn’t kidding.
Later, in a video intro for “The Lucky One” which showed Swift in a 1940′s movie house dressing room, the star took a more direct jab at critics as she ruminated on the perils of fame. “They don’t tell you what the papers are going to say about you. They’re building you up just to knock you down. But they haven’t yet.”
And she wasn’t done. “I used to think when you grow up, there are no mean kids,” said Swift in her intro to “Mean.” “I legitimately thought that meanness was something that people outgrow.” And before her next song, “Stay Stay Stay,” the star took a playful jab at her own reputation as the queen of the break-up song: “It’s been brought to my attention that apparently I write a lot of break-up songs. And I do write a lot of break-up songs. That’s a fact. But I don’t exclusively write break-up songs, because sometimes people stay.”
Swift also offered an explanation to her fans as to why she does write so many personal songs as she sat down at the piano in one of the evening’s highlights to belt out “All Too Well,” explaining how her songwriting constitutes a form a therapy. “My main goal is to write exactly how I’m feeling, so I can get past how I’m feeling.”
As on our her last Speak Now tour, the singer alternated between stripped down numbers like “Starlight” and “Begin Again” (which featured her on the guitar and not a lot else), and huge production pieces such as “22” (which featured Swift being carried through the crowd from the main stage to a smaller platform on the other side of the arena) and “I Knew You Were Trouble” (which took the form of a massive masquerade ball).
The biggest surprise of the evening was when Swift showcased a new bass-heavy, Motown-esque arrangement for one of her signature hits, “You Belong With Me.” A less welcome surprise occurred when technical difficulties sabotaged a duet between Swift and opening act Ed Sheeran on “Everything Has Changed.” Sheeran appeared to be having issues with both his in-ear monitor and guitar, causing the singers to be both out of tune and out of time for the first half of the song, although they recovered nicely by the end.
By the time Swift appeared on stage in a top hat for her circus-themed finale of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” — telling the audience “By all means, never get back together with your horrible ex” — it was clear the adoring crowd wanted to get back together with Taylor Swift very, very soon.
Taylor Swift at the Prudential Center: Song by song, again
By Tris McCall/The Star-Ledger
Say, did I mention Taylor Swift was in town? Only about 500 times? Pardon my enthusiasm: "Red" was my favorite album of last year, and I've probably driven my neighbors crazy by playing it over and over ever since its release. I faced down Hurricane Sandy to that album. I pull-quoted its songs in e-mail messages; I talked it up to friends and family and to the poor listeners of Rich Russo's radio show who were probably expecting a rock critic to talk up Tame Impala instead. When I needed confidence; when I worried; when I wanted to dance like I was 22 (and I haven't been 22 in a very long time); it was Taylor Swift's "Red" I turned to. Nothing's changed -- I had a doctor's appointment in New York City a week ago, and no analgesic could have steadied my nerves or soothed my pain any better.
When I listened to her first three sets, I thrilled to the proprietary undertones of Swift's songs: Her appetite for love and romance was immense, and that made my heart flutter. I didn't think it was possible, but "Red" upped the ante. "Don't you dream impossible things?," she sings on "Starlight," and it sounds as if she's coming apart with desire -- like she'd stuff the whole world in her pocket if she could. The whole world should be so lucky. Swift has never been the most confident stage performer or the strongest live singer, but my expectations for the Red Tour were lofty anyway. Did Taylor Swift live up to them? Let's go song by song, just as we did after the Newark stop on the Speak Now Tour nearly killed her.
STATE OF GRACE
Four albums in and millions upon millions served, and she's still doing that thing where she looks around the arena like she's astonished we're all there. Heck, maybe it's sincere. Imagine you had the ability to connect with ten thousand teenage girls, and the words you wrote in your bedroom resonated so strongly with them that they were willing to stand in line for hours just to get an opportunity to sing them back to you. You'd probably never stop wondering how that happened. And they are singing them back, as loudly as they can. I am pleased to see that Swift's fanbase is just as enthusiastic about the new album sides as they were about the singles from "Fearless." It makes me feel like we're all growing up together. Even arrested adolescents like me.
HOLY GROUND
This is such a good song that it's next to impossible to mess up. Some of the long held notes are giving Swift trouble, and she pulls flat from time to time, but for the most part, her singing is stronger and more confident than it was on the Speak Now Tour. Swift doesn't really dance the way other pop stars do, but she doesn't have to: She can just come to the lip of the catwalk and jump around like a dork, and it's so adorable that the crowd goes bananas. Midway through the song, large glowing cylinders emerge from beneath the stage, and others are lowered from the rafters. These are supposed to be drums, and the dancers pantomime hitting them. It's as good a visual approximation of Jeff Bhasker's luminous, percussive production sound as I've encountered, including those in Kanye West videos.
RED
The dancers grab big red flags and run around with them. I feel like there's been a flag dance in almost every arena show I've seen in the last year. So far, the stage elements of the Red Tour have all been used in other shows: a drumline hanging from the ceiling, a backlit silhouette projected onto cloth to open the concert, people running around with flags. Taylor Swift straps on a red electric guitar and plays rhythm while her main main takes a lead. His guitar is red and glittery too. They stand back to back and make guitar poses, like Bruce and Stevie, or Richards and Wood.
YOU BELONG WITH ME
The night's first curveball. Swift takes one of her best-known songs, rinses away the country-pop elements, and presents it instead as a Motown number complete with chord substitutions. Okay, maybe closer to "Every Day I Write the Book" than genuine Motown, but it's the thought that counts. I'm not sure she's got the vocal chops to pull it off, but she wins points for her guts. She's flanked by four backing singers, all of whom awkwardly attempt Supremes-style hand dances. They're all the way in on this one. I keep expecting them to revert to the original arrangement, but Swift refuses to chicken out. To their credit, the little girls hang with her.
THE LUCKY ONE
Taylor Swift loves to talk to the crowd. I'm inclined to wish there was less talk and more rock, but she usually manages to say amusing stuff. The spoken intro to "The Lucky One" is an unfortunate exception. Swift takes the opportunity to complain about the price of fame and her poor treatment by the press. "They don't tell you what the papers are going to say about you". Oh, you mean like the guy from the Newark Star-Ledger who wrote that you're a fantastic songwriter and your album was a triumph? C'mon, Swift, get over it. She's really struggling with the leaps from the low notes to the high ones here, and she's not helped by goofy choreography that has her chased around by make-believe paparazzi. This is the low point of the show.
MEAN
Oh, right!, Taylor Swift is a country singer. Sort of. So far, her fiddler has had very little to do besides jump around with the star. In retrospect, her turn away from Nashville was foreshadowed on the Speak Now Tour. "Mean," the most country song in her repertoire, was done as a set piece loaded with hobby horses, cows on wheels, dancers in the roles of guileless but enthusiastic hayseeds, and other examples of ironic cornpone. It was the country as it might have been imagined by a Broadway producer, and not a producer of "Oklahoma," either. This year's model does not return to the farm; instead, the set resembles a carousel. There's a metaphor operating somewhere here, but I'm missing it. Swift pauses dramatically when she gets to the part where the big meanie says that she can't sing. Because there are still people who insist she can't. There are people who say J.K. Rowling can't write, too.
STAY STAY STAY
I played in indiepop and tweepop bands for the better part of a decade. Thus it is not as a come-lately to Shelflife and Sarah Records that I insist that "Stay Stay Stay" was the best tweepop song waxed in 2012. Some find it impossibly cutesy; I say that if the Snow Fairies or Tullycraft had gotten onstage at the San Francisco Popfest and performed this song, there would have been an explosion of joy and cupcake batter from Fell Street to the Golden Gate Bridge. There's even a xylophone part; how twee is that? Swift tucks a bit of "Ho Hey" into the song, which is completely unnecessary, but it does reinforce something that every Grammy-watcher knows about the star: She's up on her contemporary pop, and she knows all the words to everything.
22
Those Max Martin beats sound fantastic, and appropriate, pumping out of the arena speakers. For a moment, it looks like Swift, who is generally buttoned-down and on script while in performance, has been overcome by the moment and compelled to go nuts. But her stage dive turns out to be part of the act: She's caught by her dancers, and carried to a platform at the back of the arena. This begins the customary acoustic segment of the show.
STARLIGHT
Swift has been doing a different solo song in this slot each night; she checks Twitter, she tells us, to see what her fans want. No truth to the rumor that I tweeted "Starlight" ten thousand times. Seriously, I cannot pretend to be objective about this song. Here is my trenchant rock critical analysis of the performance: Mmmmmmmm.
EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED
Disastro. Swift is joined at the back platform by opening act Ed Sheeran, who wrote "Everything Has Changed" with her, and who sings with her on the recorded version. But something is terribly wrong with Sheeran's performance: either he's been slipped a mixed-up backing tape, or he hasn't compensated for the doppler effect of standing a hockey rink away from the band. He can't get in sync with Swift: He keeps coming in too early. The discontinuity between the two singers nearly stops the song cold. Taylor Swift snaps into damage control mode, but the problem isn't fixed until a tech hands Sheeran a fresh earpiece. By then, the song is half over. The star is not happy. She doesn't like deviation from expectation, which hardly makes her much different from other pop stars (or country stars) but probably disqualifies her from participating in the next hootenanny.
BEGIN AGAIN
Swift is still a little shook up from "Everything Has Changed." But "Begin Again" calls for her to sound fragile anyway, so it's not that much of a problem. Just like "Holy Ground," it's such an ace song that only self-sabotage could keep it from going over, and Swift is no self-saboteur.
SPARKS FLY
The time has come for Taylor Swift to rejoin her band on the mainstage, and the magic floating pedestal is readied to transport the princess across the Prudential Center. Stagehands strap her in like she's about to ride Kingda Ka. I really wish pop stars would cut out the aerial bits from their stage shows, and not just because Swift's malfunctioning floating balcony nearly deposited her feet-first in section 19 the last time she was in town. The spectacle does not compensate for the anxiety I feel, and I can't be the only one. Taylor Swift's show is not about death-defying tricks or magic carpet rides, and after watching Pink's trapeze act at Izod Center last week, it's hard to get excited about a star standing on a circle -- especially one as terrestrial as Swift is at her best.
I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE
The fiddler finally gets a spotlight moment. Somebody with his finger on the gestalt, or on the YouTube replay button, has decided that violin and dubstep go together, and Swift's sidewoman introduces "Trouble" with a solo. After that, it's like Skrillex popped up out of the floor like a jack-in-the-box. The dubstep elements politely tucked into the recorded version are amplified and extended; there's an elaborate mid-song breakdown featuring a bass drop. Incredibly, it all works. Who would have guessed that of all the pop stars monkeying around with dubstep, the one who'd figure out how to make it fit would be Taylor Swift? Scratch that, that's exactly what I would have guessed. The version of "Trouble" is so exciting that I don't even mind the inexplicable staging -- Swift starts out in a ballroom gown at a mock masque, and strips down to a tight black dress midway through the song. I have no idea what it has to do with the lyric, and again I'm left wondering if there's a metaphor I'm missing, or if the stage director who put the show together was taking laughing gas.
ALL TOO WELL
Swift retreats to a big red piano and starts the epic breakup number by herself, which makes it sound less like "With or Without You." Honestly, though, it's "With or Without You." As the song intensifies, she begins throwing her hair back and forth like Tori Amos used to do. She nails the high verse, and everybody in the audience comes down with a case of the rock chills. A row down from where I'm sitting, a girl dressed in pink waves her glow stick like a shaman in a trance. She can't be more than eight, but she knows all the words and she's spinning around, possessed by the music and by Swift's performance. Every cell in that little girl's body is feeling it, and I am overcome by the dead certainty that this is what it's all for: all the news stories and hyperbole and premature-evaluation record reviews, and everything else that accompanies modern music-making. Those long hours in practice, the backing tapes, the sleight-of-hand onstage, the confetti drops and pyrotechnics; it's all there to support the moment when the eight-year-old girl hears Taylor Swift sing "All Too Well," and the song wraps itself around her heart like a blanket. The feeling passes, the lights change, and we're on to the next one.
LOVE STORY
I've now seen Taylor Swift five times. At each show, she's performed "Love Story," and I don't think she's ever done it particularly well. Unlike "You Belong to Me," she sticks with the original arrangement, and she handles it like someone who recognizes that she'll be singing "Love Story" for the rest of her life. To paraphrase Scott Miller of Game Theory, this is as far down memory lane as Swift is going to go willingly.
TREACHEROUS
The voice is flagging a bit -- she gave most of what she had to "All Too Well" -- but she can see the finish line and she's determined to punch out the choruses. She performs the song barefoot, which underscores its vulnerability better than any projection or interpretive dance ever could. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: She's her own best special effect. If she ever wanted to forego the elaborate sets and dance routines, she could easily carry an arena show by herself, on piano, banjo, and guitar. I'll bet the teenage girls would still show up.
WE ARE NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER
The massive hit single closes the show. It is enjoyable, but no revelation. Confetti catches in Swift's hair as she sings. It looks like a bow. There's no encore.
IN CONCLUSION
This story might be apocryphal, but I'll bet it's true: Back in 1985, Bob Gibson took a look at Dwight Gooden and told the Mets' coaches that he would never be any better than he was right then. Gooden was practically a baby, and Mets fans had dreams that he could somehow develop further; that he would be part of a bright future that would last forever. That's not the way it worked. This isn't baseball, and I'm no Bob Gibson, but still, Taylor Swift is never going to be any better than she is right now. She's not under development, or promising, or an artist who will be a wonder when she grows up -- she is who she is, fully formed, and at the peak of her powers. She is who she was always going to become, and the time to engage with what she's doing is now.
Taylor Swift looks built to last, and I hope that we'll be hearing from her for a long, long time. But talent is a fickle suitor, times change, and most of all, youneverknow. If you're denying yourself the pleasure of listening to the world's greatest pop star because you think she's for little kids, or because you don't like who you think she's dating, or, most of all, you think you'll catch up with her when she matures, I urge you to stop sitting on your hands and get with the program. It's 2013; it's her day. This is the golden age of something good and right and real. It won't last forever.
Best fan sign at last night's Taylor Swift show in Newark, New Jersey: "I Newark Were Trouble." Second best: "Don't Listen to Poehler & Fay [sic], You're Great in Every Way!" Bonus points to the two girls shaking booty outside the venue, hoping for tickets, waving giant cardboard 2's (because they're feelin' 22) and wearing homemade "Not a Lot Going On at the Moment" T-shirts, dancing around the parking lot to a boombox blasting Red. I hope they got in. Because what a massively excellent show.
Seeing Taylor Swift live in 2013 is seeing a maestro at the top of her or anyone's game. No other pop auteur can touch her right now for emotional excess or musical reach – her punk is so punk, her disco is so disco. The red sequins on her guitar match the ones on her microphone, her shoes and 80 percent of the crowd. Her set is mostly new songs from Red, the slickest, smartest and just plain best mega-pop statement of our time. She's a master of every rock-star move, except the one about dialing it down a notch. But who would ever want that? (Besides the whiny exes she keeps writing songs about?) "Hi, I'm Taylor," she said by way of an introduction. "I write songs about my feelings. I'm told I have a lot of feelings." You are told this accurately, Taylor.
Nobody can touch her for fan hysteria, either – when Taylor announced, "Thirteen thousand of you opted into hearing about my feelings for the next two hours!," she set off the loudest screaming I've heard since the last time I saw her, at the end of her 2011 tour, reaching ungodly levels of girl-shriek saturation. The audience is part of the show, with their homemade red costumes, placards, Lite Brite codes and more glowsticks than an Inspiral Carpets reunion. For most of them, Taylor is the first girl they've seen play a guitar, a signifier that cannot be denied. When she said, "I look into this audience and I see a lot of creativity," it got one of the loudest cheers of the night. She also explained to the younger fans what a 12-string guitar is. "It has twice as many strings as a regular guitar. So that's your math for the night." Educational!
On her last tour, she took the stage to Tom Petty's "American Girl"; this time it was Lenny Kravitz's version of "American Woman," a neat contrast. Right before she went on, her mom was escorted down the aisle near my section, causing a major fan commotion. (I haven't seen so much love for a rock parent since Springsteen brought his mama onstage for "Dancing in the Dark.") But the coolest pre-show moment was seeing the crowd go ballistic for Icona Pop's hipster-disco club hit "I Love It." If you wondered how it would sound to hear several thousand tweens chant "You're from the Seventies, but I'm a Nineties bitch," now you know. Nineties bitches, consider yourselves warned.
Once the lights went out, the screaming never flagged, and neither did the star. Taylor came out belting "State of Grace" in the same kind of black hat the Edge wore on the Joshua Tree tour (which makes sense, since Bono also had a red guitar). For "Holy Ground" she banged the drum solo on a giant glowing cylinder ("She's rocking out!" the little kid behind me informed her mom. "She's rocking ooouuut!") "Mean" began with a rustic interlude, just Tay plucking her banjo center stage, and Ed Sheeran held his own in "Everything Has Changed," while "22" got a breakdance and a snippet of the "Paid in Full" beat until everyone felt so 22 it hurt.
But the best moment was the double-shot of "I Knew You Were Trouble" into "All Too Well." She turned "Trouble" into a blast of razzle-dazzle choreography in fancy-dress masquerade-ball mode. Then she sat alone to play "All Too Well," her most majestic ballad, just a girl and her piano and several thousand other girls singing along. It was the highlight of a show that was nothing but highlights.
Seeing Taylor onstage now is just like seeing Morrissey in 1992 – that same level of total commitment, total fan fervor, total connection between audience and performer. I've compared Taylor to Morrissey many times, but no other performer really hits that same pitch of happy/free/confused/lonely hormonal anguish with so much wit and empathy. Moz sang "the sun shines out of our behinds," Tay sings "people throw rocks at things that shine," but they're coming from the same place. (People said lovin' you was red, and they were half right.) They share the conviction that their moods are the universe and
expressing them is the reason the universe exists. This is a useful conviction for a singer to have, even if it's more dangerous for the rest of us. But Taylor wears it like a true arena-rock goddess at an amazing peak.
Set list:
"State of Grace"
"Holy Ground"
"Red"
"You Belong With Me"
"The Lucky One"
"Mean"
"Stay Stay Stay"
"22"
"Starlight"
"Everything Has Changed"
"Begin Again"
"Sparks Fly"
"I Knew You Were Trouble"
"All Too Well"
"Love Story"
"Treacherous"
"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"
Taylor Swift Brings 'Red' To Life In New Jersey: Live Review
By Chris Payne
Last year, Taylor Swift wowed music fans with her most diverse album to date. Last night (Mar. 27), she brought that album to life with the first of three Newark, N.J. performances on her Red Tour.
"Red" was the theme of the night, dominating everything from the song choices to the colors of Taylor's banjo, guitar, and shoes. 13 of the evening's 17 songs came from the new album, reflecting Swift's evolution from a country musician -- and a massively successful one at that -- to a 21st-century pop star with an ever-growing fanbase.
Swift seemed genuinely awestruck when reflecting on the crowd at the Prudential Center, marveling at the sea of fluorescent, fan-made signs and glow sticks which took the usual glow of an arena show to another level. Artists often speak of how each crowd or city is their most passionate; such was the case when Swift addressed her audience following set openers "State of Grace" and "Holy Ground." Then, in an explanation of the album's theme prior to performing its title track, Swift stated the obvious:
"I write songs a lot about my feelings. I'm told I have a lot of feelings."
When Swift took on songs from previous albums -- which she did only four times -- they hit a bit harder. "Sparks Fly," a single from 2010's "Speak Now," truly soared as Swift soared from a platform suspended from the ceiling. "Mean" merrily bounced along as its banjo riffs managed to fill the arena. "You Belong With Me" was given a bit of an about-face, stripped down into a more minimal, beat-driven version while Taylor's backing performers pantomimed the lyrics.
In a music scene where female pop superstars are often expected to have their performances dominated by flashy choreography, Swift struck a comfortable balance. Swift and her onstage cohorts broke into simple choreo only when the situation called for it; the concert felt like an A-list pop show but seldom got carried away with its concepts, even if there were dancing photojournalists on hand for "Lucky One."
Out of all of Swift's onstage companions, the one with just an acoustic guitar received the most rousing reception. After an uplifting opening set, British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran joined Swift onstage for a performance of their "Red" duet "Everything Has Changed."
Following the trend set earlier on the Red Tour, Swift's performance did not include an encore, although ending with a circus-like, confetti-covered performance of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" assured that she went out on top.
Swift will remain in Jersey for the next two nights, with pair of additional Prudential Center performances. Her North American tour runs through Sept. 21, where it wraps up in Nashville, TN.
Here is the set list from Taylor Swift's Mar. 27 performance:
State of Grace
Holy Ground
Red
You Belong With Me
Lucky One
Mean
Stay Stay Stay/Ho Hey (Lumineers cover)
22
Starlight
Everything Has Changed (Feat. Ed Sheeran)
Begin Again
Sparks Fly
I Knew You Were Trouble
All Too Well
Love Story
Treacherous
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
On the Red Tour, traditionalist Taylor Swift takes a few more chances
By Tris McCall/The Star-Ledger
Taylor Swift loves to play pretend. For three intriguing minutes on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center — at the first of three shows at the Newark arena — she made believe she was in the Supremes. She stood atop a broad riser in a long flame-red dress, flanked by two backing singers, and sang a revamped version of "You Belong With Me," one of her best-known songs. The country elements had been scrubbed away and replaced with a bouncy, bottom-heavy arrangement inspired by Motown and ’60s pop. Swift and her band substituted chords and played around with the world-famous melody, too.
It was a gutsy move from a performer better known for her traditionalism than her risk-taking, and another signal that Swift has cast aside genre altogether, like a robe that no longer fits her.
Swift’s first two albums introduced millions of teenagers to contemporary country music, and for that alone, Nashville will always owe her a debt of gratitude. "Fearless," her 2008 album, was a winner; it’s also immensely conservative, steeped in the conventions of modern Music City. Since then, she’s cautiously opened up her sound, incorporating more elements of mainstream pop and classic rock into her songs.
On "Red," her latest set, Swift juxtaposed roots-rock and folk-rock numbers with productions by hit-makers Max Martin, Shellback and Jeff Bhasker. These tracks are built for arenas, and they sounded terrific pumping from the Prudential Center speakers — particularly "Holy Ground," which featured a percussion ensemble hammering on glow-in-the-dark tom-tom drums, and "I Knew You Were Trouble," which was spiked by the rare dubstep breakdown that did not feel like a bizarre imposition or a computer error.
The star punctuated the second chorus of the giddy nightlife anthem "22" with a stage dive, which was something of a cheat — she fell backward into the arms of her dancers, who were waiting for her in the crowd.
That was probably wise. Swift continues to elicit a manic response from her fans, most of whom have grown up with her and identify strongly with her vulnerable, subtly tough lyrics. Swift’s narrators continue to demand fair treatment from those who purport to care about them; this makes her characters easy to pull for. Young women in the audience sang along just as passionately with the more sophisticated verses from "Red" as they did with older songs such as the fairy tale "Love Story," which could have benefited from the same sort of courageous reimagining that Swift and her band provided "You Belong With Me."
Swift is not the strongest singer on the arena circuit — some of her high notes are shrill, and her low verses still occasionally get swallowed by her band. But even when she struggles, she remains expressive, and with each tour, her singing grows more confident.
It is Swift’s sharp writing that guarantees her a future in the spotlight, and as much as she seems to enjoy participating in the big production pieces, she’s clearly most comfortable when she can grab a guitar and hammer out storytelling songs, just as she once did at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe.
"Starlight," a seaside daydream about the Kennedys, came to life in vivid color as a solo acoustic song; "Begin Again," the impeccable first-date ballad that closes "Red," was about as intimate and fragile as it is possible to be in a sports arena. Should Swift ever choose to forego the pyrotechnics, video screens and dance routines and present herself to arena crowds as an earnest, straightforward singer-songwriter with guitar in tow, I’d wager the reaction to her music would not be any less ecstatic.
The night’s only disaster took place during the acoustic segment. Opening act Ed Sheeran, her co-writer and duet partner on "Everything Has Changed," attempted to sing his part with a faulty earpiece. He was completely out of sync with the band and with Swift, too, and by the time the technical problem was corrected, the song was half over.
Swift recovered, but she was visibly bothered by the mistake, and with the breach of pop protocol. She’s loosening up and taking chances, but does not adjust quickly or smoothly when she’s forced to go off script.
Sheeran is a talented gremlin who confronts stadium audiences with nothing but his folk-pop songs, his acoustic guitar, and a loop pedal. His 45 minute opening set was likable, but tipped into self-indulgence during the long, repetitive outros to his otherwise crisply written songs. Sheeran, a good communicator, explained to the young audience exactly what he was doing as he did it: He'd hammer a beat on the body of the guitar, capture that, layer a bass riff on top of the loop, and add backing vocals and treble parts until it sounded like a full band was in action.
So dense were his sound sculptures that he was sometimes able to lay down the acoustic guitar, stand on his monitor speakers, and lead the willing audience in singalongs. A cover of Nina Simone's "Be My Husband" required extensive, interminable crowd participation before it got off the ground. When it did, the kite got stuck in the tree. But Sheeran's delicate originals -- particularly "Lego House" and "The A Team" -- were pleasantly reminiscent of Tracy Chapman's strong, straightforward topical songwriting.
It doesn't matter whether doing nothing follows dressing up and dancing like a hipster, or flying over the crowd (while singing) on an elevated platform, or just a good old-fashioned strut across the stage. That's because when she pauses, stares out with her subtle, charming smile, she's in complete control of the room. When that room seats 18, 711 people (and all of those seats are full), one can't help but wonder: How the hell does she make this look so easy? Well, it's a fairly simple answer. Taylor Swift was born to entertain.
Last night's show at the Prudential Center had something for everyone. The two-hour set, not too unlike her latest album Red, touched on parts of the entire pop music spectrum. She gave us a little twang of Nashville country ("Holy Ground"). She aggressively broke down the wub-wub-wub of dubstep ("I Knew You Were Trouble"). She shamelessly led the year's anthem break-up song ("We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together").
With each rendition, she brought her overflowing, bubbling energy--along with a different set design and costume change. She dressed like a ringmaster and led a collection of dancers (some of whom were on stilts) around the stage. She pounded on lit-up drums that floated in the air. She sported skinny red jeans, a striped shirt, and crowd surfed. At times, the concert felt more like a Broadway musical or Cirque du Soleil, and everybody in the venue--from the 13-year-olds holding up the blinking, homemade signs to the 50-year-old parents cheersing their Budweisers--let their appreciation be known. Often the screams were so deafening that it was difficult to hear the actual music.
Like any 23-year-old, Swift is not afraid to tell you what she thinks about the Important Things in life. Between songs, she took a few minutes and shared inspirational stories of growing up and getting picked on. She'd go on to explain how the cycle of love works, and how we shouldn't get down on ourselves because things will eventually "just work out." She clearly recognizes her role model status, and encouraged fans to be themselves and not be afraid of mean people.
If this were any other punk-ass twenty-something telling you how to live your life, you might want to kick them in the face. But strangely, Swift's preachiness doesn't come off as arrogant, which speaks further to her endless appealing nature as a performer. The Red Tour, no doubt, has been orchestrated and choreographed down to the last sparkle on her bright red guitar. But, somehow, through the controlled presentation of it all, Swift remains genuine. Or, at least, it seems so. In a media reception prior to the show, she introduced herself as Taylor to each person and individually thanked them for coming. During the concert, she mentioned how she used to dream of performing at this level, but quickly followed with, "I don't even think it looked this cool in my dreams, you know?"
Well, no, we don't actually. But there's a certain charm to Swift that makes you believe she means it when she says it. She's audacious, but endearing; aggressive, but captivating; earnest, but not corny. Her brimming confidence radiates just as much as her innocence. With four albums in the bag at such a young age, can she continue to successfully walk this delicate line? That remains to be seen. But for now, let's allow it, put on our football helmets, and stay.
Critical Bias: During the media reception, Taylor told me I am "very hip" because I live in Brooklyn.
Overheard: "MOM, GET ME SOME ICE CREAM!"
Random Notebook Dump: One of the guitarists looks exactly like Rod Stewart.
Setlist:
State of Grace
Holy Ground
Red
You Belong With Me
The Lucky One
Mean
Stay
22
The Story of Us
Everything Has Changed featuring Ed Sheeran
Begin Again
Sparks Fly
Everybody Talks (Neon Trees cover) featuring Tyler Glenn, lead singer of Neon Trees
I Knew You Were Trouble
All Too Well
Love Story
Treacherous
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Taylor Swift Has Fans Sobbing, Squealing, Soaring On Red Tour Swift takes fans on emotional rollercoaster and 'rewards' them with Neon Trees' Tyler Glenn. By Emilee Lindner
Newark, New Jersey — "Sometimes, you have just too many emotions in one day, that you don't know which one to write about."
It was mid-set and Taylor Swift sat at red grand piano, pushing in the keys with casual preciseness. Her wavy blonde hair fell around her shoulders as she sang. Her eyes glistened. She looked directly at the main camera, projecting the intense, sad feeling she had on her face onto the big screen.
Around the Prudential Center on Thursday, groups of teens clutched their friends' hands while Swift solemnly called out the melody of "All Too Well," a song she had written about a breakup. A couple in Section 8 cried in each other's arms.
But it didn't stay beautifully somber for long. Throughout the Red Tour stop, Taylor Swift took the audience through a string of emotions — from blissful to hopeful to revengeful to romantic. Or, as the singer sums it up in one fiery, all-encompassing color: red. The emotions tied to the color, seen everywhere from her microphone to her sparkly oxford shoes, are seen as a challenge, Taylor told the audience. They're something we learn from, grow from and use to become the people we'll end up as.
Swift's had a lot of those emotions along her lifelong voyage as a singing superstar — betrayal, jealousy, falling in love. A video montage took concertgoers through her life, starting when she was 1 year old, to when she got her first guitar, to school musicals, to recording her first song, to global stardom. All the while, she was following her dream, and tossing down haters along the way.
Sitting on a treasure chest, plucking the tinny strings of her banjo reminded her of that journey. "This brings me back to the stuff I used to daydream about when I was a kid," she said, scanning the arena before heading off into "Mean," from 2010's Speak Now. (But the New Jersey crowd looked even better than her childhood dreams, she revealed.)
The night was filled with Red, taking us from the bubbly, love proclamation of "Stay Stay Stay" to the dangerous, dub-stepper "I Knew You Were Trouble" to the carpe diem attitude of "22." When one moment there was screaming and bouncing, five more minutes brought fist-pumping anger. Another five minutes ushered in sobs and unison cries over love gone sour. TSwizzle got fans rowdy and "rewarded" them with special guest Tyler Glenn from Neon Trees. The duo teamed up for the band's "Everybody Talks," jumping around the stage and grinding out the song's catchy chorus in harmony.
Set themes ranged from masquerade party to old-time cinema, but it still came as a surprise when Taylor put a doo-wop spin on "You Belong With Me." Watching the glittery backup dancers, complete with curly bobs and long gloves, I felt like I should've been in the '50s at the local diner, eating a burger and a malt instead of the Coke and candy I scarfed down backstage at Club Red. The superstar onstage was way more glammed up than the same, casual girl we met before the show, when a few select fans and media got access to Swift's hidden arena hangout.
Although Swift has a lot to reflect on, at 23, she still has a long career ahead of her, which accompanies her highly speculated personal life. "They're building you up just to knock you down," she said, addressing the media coverage around her relationships and her penchant from writing ballads about boys. ("I've been told I write a lot of breakup songs." It's true, she admitted.) They haven't brought her down yet, Taylor added, empowered, before singing about the loneliness of fame in "The Lucky One."
She's rubbed off on her fans. Many of them toted signs imparting her lyrical wisdom ("Dream impossible dreams," one read). Others took on her carefree "22" persona and donned cat ears. But mostly everyone wore red.
And really, "Red" is the only way to summarize the magic of the hectic, exhausting night. Because by the time you waded through the thousands pouring out on Mulberry Street, you'd experienced every different kind of emotion in only two hours. That's Red.
Taylor Swift, Red Tour Newark, NJ Stop: Singer Addresses Critics & Throws Magical Party
For someone who admitted to The Boot that she was feeling "nervous" before her March 27 Red tour stop in Newark, New Jersey, her first of of three at the Prudential Center, she had little reason to.
But for Taylor Swift, who's lately battled a slew of negative press, it was her time for redemption. Although the Red tour had similar features from her past tours -- amazing visuals, a slew of dancers, special effects including fire, intricate costumes and the singer floating above the audience -- there were some darker, real moments, too.
Take, for instance, a video playing before "The Lucky One," a song that addresses the downside of fame by telling the story of a recording artist named Lucky. In a black-and-white film that played before her performance, Taylor was seen combing her wavy hair, looking at herself in a mirror.
"Lucky Steals The Show" a fake newspaper headline reads. Then, Taylor's voice comes over the video, saying, "Isn't it strange how it all happens? ... They tell you it's going to be glamorous. And they tell you that you have everything. But nobody tells you how lonely it is ... or what the papers are going to say about you one day. Because they don't tell you that they're building you up just to try to knock you down." After a long pause that drew cheers from the audience, she ends, "But they haven't yet."
That was appropriately followed by "Mean," as Taylor again addressed the critics who have yet to leave her alone. "I used to think when you grow up, there are no mean kids," she explained. "I legitimately thought that meanness was something that people outgrow ... But there's always going to be someone picking on you telling you that you don't deserve what you want."
It was those strong messages that stood out, but the show also had some lighter moments -- specifically a masquerade-themed party for "I Knew You Were Trouble" and a dance-off during "22," where she crowd surfed as her dancers carried her to another stage. Besides playing songs off her new album, she mixed in a few of her older songs, including "You Belong With Me," "Love Story" and "Sparks Fly."
During her performance to "Treacherous," where she carefully walked a tight-rope of sorts, walking over a raised section of the stage, it was clear everything the singer does in life has a similar balancing act feel -- whether it be dealing with love, tabloids, or mean people.
"I write songs about my feelings," she told the crowd in the beginning of the night. "I'm told I have a lot of feelings."
And during perhaps her most emotional song, "All Too Well," where she sat at a red piano complete with lit candles, Taylor explained her heartfelt writing process before breaking into the tune.
"I really just try to write about my own life," she shared. "My main goal is to write exactly how I'm feeling ... so I can get past how I'm feeling."
Before "Red," the superstar also addressed what the color red, (the title of her latest album and tour) means to her. The crowd, mostly teens decked out in crazy red outfits and holding up bright LED-light posters, listened intently.
"Feelings ... I compare them a color. For me, blue is sad, yellow/gold is comfort and warmth, but there's this one color that kind of defines what I've been going through lately ... emotions like frustration, anger, jealousy, falling in love, falling out of love, heartbreak, never speaking to someone again ... It's great, but I think those are the kinds of emotions that make you grow and turn you into who you're going to be one day."
By the end of the night, Taylor kicked off her glittery shoes to go barefoot for a few songs, showing her casual side.
But by her last song, a circus-themed performance of "We Are Never Getting Back Together," the 23-year-old star was back to her ring-leader self, dancing around as confetti poured from the arena's ceiling, playfully sliding down the stage, and leaving the audience with a wink as she took her final bow.
She also had one last message for what she called an "unbelievable crowd": "By all means, never get back together with your horrible ex."
Omaha Century Link Center Omaha 27,877 / 27,877 $2,243,164
St. Louis Scottrade Center 28,582 / 28,582 $2,346,203
Charlotte Time Warner Cable Arena 14,686 / 14,686 $1,162,733
Columbia Colonial Life Arena 12,490 / 12,490 $996,114
Gross so far: $6, 748, 214
*Does not include merch sales*
83,635 tickets sold so far;