On March 17, 2023, Taylor Swift began her sixth headlining tour: The Eras Tour. A tour intended to go through every album or era she has. The tour managed to sell out 53 dates across the U.S. including two in Cincinnati, OH. I attended the first night in Cincinnati on June 30. Taylor Swift came on stage at 7:50 p.m., but the real involvement in the show for fans began far earlier. Many people made friendship bracelets using references to Taylor Swift’s songs or career and dressed up as versions of her eras.
When the last minutes ticked by before the show started, 60,000 fans filled out every available seat in the full sun of Paycor Stadium. About five minutes before Swift came onstage “You Don’t Own Me” by Leslie Gore began playing, and a countdown began on the screens. All 60,000 people in the stadium were standing up and waiting with anticipation for the show to finally begin.
As the countdown ended and the stage turned black, the intro of the show began playing. This was a rendition of “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince.” Swift finally took the stage with the lyric “It’s you and me, that’s my whole world” and probably the loudest cheer of the entire show ran through the stadium.
Afterwards, she transitioned into the second song on the setlist: “Cruel Summer”. Just before the bridge of “Cruel Summer”, she stopped and asked everyone to scream the bridge with her and as expected, every excited fan obliged. She then played “The Man” and “You Need To Calm Down” which everybody happily danced and sang along to while the light-up bracelets we’d all been given lit up patterns across the stadium.
For the next song, she switched to a guitar and played “Lover.” After that was a ballad which typically wouldn’t make sense for a stadium, “The Archer.” However, the powerful version she played echoed across the stadium beautifully and made a good transition into the next era.
She opened the “Fearless era” with its title track, “Fearless” wearing a gold fringe dress and illuminated by yellow lights. During this song in a callback to the tour for this album she raised her hands above her head in the shape of a heart to the crowd which was returned by thousands of fans.
“Fearless” then transitioned into “You Belong With Me” and then into “Love Story.” The bridge of “Love Story” talks about Romeo proposing to Juliet; this sparked a trend of people proposing to their significant others at previous shows. At my concert, I was lucky enough to witness a proposal at the section right in front of me that added to the magic of the moment.
There was again a transition into the next era where trees rose onto the stage and Swift came on in an orange and gold dress and a green cloak to the song “tis’ the damn season”. Then came a dark and eerie progression into “Willow”. After “Willow” she took off the cloak and played “Marjorie”, a song that she wrote about her late grandmother. To honor this all of the concertgoers took out the flashlights on their phones and held them up. She moved to a piano and played “Champagne Problems” next and ended the era with “Tolerate It”.
Signifying the next era the screens lit up with a snake as the beginning of “…Ready For It?” played. This era was defined by snakes and black and red colors. Moving swiftly on, she played “Delicate”. Next was “Don’t Blame Me” which as a fan favorite was accompanied by fans screaming at the top of their lungs. After this was an epic transition into “Look What You Made Me Do”, featuring an electric guitar piece and strobe lights.
Once the “Reputation” era ended, the short “Speak Now” era began with only one song. The screens all lit up purple and the light-up bracelets danced along. The song “Enchanted” was accompanied by a gorgeous sparkling ball gown, but the show quickly moved on to the next era, “Red”.
The “Red” era started with a collage of songs from the album, then Swift came onstage to “22”. During “22” she gave the black hat she was wearing to a fan in the crowd. After a quick outfit change, she moved on to “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and then straight into “I Knew You Were Trouble.” After that was the longest song from the show and my favorite song she played, “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).” Completed with confetti in the shape of leaves and a well-timed light show, she played the full ten minutes and moved on to the seventh era.
“Folklore” began with Swift in a flowy dress at the top of a cabin on stage. The first song was “the 1” followed by “betty” on a guitar. The dancers then joined her onstage the ballroom for “the last great american dynasty”. The next fan favorite, “august”, played and the energy in the stadium was riding high right into the shortened version of “illicit affairs”. The era was completed with “my tears ricochet” and “cardigan.”
The “1989” era was filled with Swift’s biggest hits, starting out with “Style”, “Blank Space”, and “Shake It Off.” The era ended with a mashup of “Wildest Dreams” and “Bad Blood.” Notably “Bad Blood” had impressive pyrotechnics in the form of fire that blazed across the whole venue and shocked everybody.
The ninth part of the setlist was not one of Swift’s albums but a surprise song section. During this segment, two different tracks are played every night of the tour. My show received “I’m Only Me When I’m With You” on the guitar and a haunting acoustic of “evermore” on the piano.
The very last portion of the concert was her newest album, “Midnights”, which contained seven songs, starting with “Lavender Haze”, moving on to “Anti-Hero”, and then “Midnight Rain”. Beginning the last four songs of the setlist was “Vigilante Shit”, then a sparkly performance of “Bejeweled.” This brought us to the last two songs, “Mastermind” and “Karma”. The closing boasted confetti and bright flashing lights.
The first night of The Eras Tour in Cincinnati was a huge production that lasted over three hours with 44 songs and thousands of people who all screamed the words to every song. It was a night to remember for everyone involved and was a huge highlight of mine and many others’ summers with 16 outfit changes, beautiful props, and stunning stage effects. The only complaint I could give would be the 90° weather that Swift somehow performed for three hours with no breaks in. Overall, The Eras Tour was a spectacular show and I was glad I got to attend.
