Fortunately, there wasn't any preaching, save for the message to boys who "shouldn't do bad things," a command writ huge across the stage backdrop after a lengthy video interlude that contained an interview with Swift and tongue-in-cheek comments from men (including Tim McGraw) named in some of her songs. Over the course of the night, the set transformed from a high school to Shakespearian times to an abstract scene with an actual waterfall showering onto Swift the word "no."
Through all this, Swift managed to squeeze 16 songs into her set of just over two hours. She was backed by seven other musicians including a female back-up singer and another woman who played multiple instruments, sang back-up and, bizarrely, beat on oil drums with Swift during "Should've Said No."
Aside from this Stomp-y episode, Swift's production is High School Musical meets The Princess Diaries. The curtain initially rose on a scene of male and female cheerleaders cavorting and Swift above them outfitted in drum major garb, singing her high school heart-in-a-jar ode, "You Belong with Me." It wasn't long before she stripped off the band uniform to reveal a fringey, sparkly silver party dress -- the first of many costume changes that also included a bulky period gown for "Love Story" (her Polyanna version of Romeo and Juliet) layered over a wedding dress.
Swift also made a point to address the crowd a lot. Acknowledging the redundant subject matter of her music, she said, "I write a lot about love, because love can seem so confusing." The search for that person who "makes you feel fearless" (a nod to the name of her tour and latest album) is why people daydream, she continued. A lesson of her success: "I'm not the only person who believes in love stories." Indeed, Sprint Center was sold out on Friday, full of many big-eyed young girls whose romantic hopes and first love pangs are reflected in Swift's timeworn themes. Say what you will about Swift; if I had a tween girl I'd rather she pine with Swift than brush her teeth with a bottle of jack (Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" played between acts).
Swift sang impressively, never wavering too much from the way her recordings sound. She seemed to improvise a little at the end of "Fifteen," which she played on her acoustic guitar. Her piano rose out of the stage for "You're Not Sorry," during which she covered part of "What Goes Around..." by Justin Timberlake.
Two openers are on the road with Swift, the band Gloriana and American Idol also-ran Kellie Pickler. Both acts are slightly more country than Swift, whose commercial crossover has rendered her with hook-y musical trappings generic enough that she can pass for pop or country, depending on the radio station.
All that means is that more people get to hear her. As expected, the crowd was more female than male, yet I was surprised at the number of men who brought their daughters and muscly, teenage fanboys in the crowd. According to their homemade signs and shirts, the fanboys all want to be the prince for whom Swift is ever searching.
No doubt they'd be happy enough just to break her heart and become song fodder.
SETLIST:
You Belong With Me
Our Song
Tell Me Why
Teardrops on My Guitar
Fearless
Forever and Always
Hey Stephen
Fifteen
Tim McGraw
White Horse
Love Story
That's The Way I Loved You
You're Not Sorry
Picture to Burn
Today Was a Fairy Tale
Should've Said No
And, because we're the subversive types, here's a crotch shot:
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OMG....Like great soulful singers like Tammy Wynette,Patsy Cline,Kitty Wells must be spinning in their graves..sorry Miss Wells I know you are still here... .LIKE Like this is proof that Nashville being a home to where a song writer can make his-her mark with great music is shattered...This generation with the souless hip-hoppish-mixed to-death crap shows what little robotic lil lemmings they have become....Swift is a great role model.....Gifted musician?...Like OMG NOT!..Whatever!.....At least we got rid of Shitnia Twat!
Oh my gosh. You can't see anything. It's obvious you know nothing about Miss Swift. If you'd done any homework at all before writing this and trying to stir up problems with that picture you would know Taylor wears shorts under EVERY dress. It's been in just about every article and interview she's been on and in. They are special made shorts inwhich her wireless mic pac hooks on to the back of them under her dresses at the small of her back unnoticable.
Let's just hope that's the only crotch shot we'll ever see from Taylor Swift. As a parent of a tween girl, I'm glad to have Miss Swift as an example of how a successful young woman should act. Hopefully she will continue to depend on her talents to keep her in the limelight and not fall to the trap of "sex sells" that seems to have befallen so many before her.
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