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You have to be living under a rock if you haven't heard about The Eras Tour: a three-and-a-half-hour-long concert that spanned from Mar. 17, 2023 to Dec. 8, 2024. The show takes you throughout the 18 years of Taylor Swift's discography, with sparkling outfits and elaborate set pieces to match the vibe of each album's aesthetic, or “era,” as Swift describes. There were 149 total shows and after about 136 of them, The Eras Tour finally took over Indiana at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
When the tour was first announced, I didn’t plan on getting tickets. As a casual fan of Swift, facing the battle with Ticketmaster did not seem worth it, but after watching a live stream of the first night, my opinion changed drastically. Watching the opening night on a livestream made me realize that I was missing out on something big. From that point on, I stayed up-to-date with everything related to The Eras Tour; watching every surprise song, album announcement, and setlist change even if I was watching it through my phone, hundreds or thousands of miles away from the actual show. The second it was announced that Swift was bringing the tour to Indianapolis after her European leg, I was determined to get tickets for it. And after a tough battle with Ticketmaster and tens of thousands of other fans, I got a pair of tickets for the first night, Nov. 1, 2024. The amount of energy and excitement within the stadium that night was unlike any concert experience I ever had and the energy didn’t let up for a second of it, making it a night to remember.
It Feels Like a Perfect Night
It’s not uncommon for concerts and big events to have themes, but nothing will prepare you for the number of sparkles, sequins, and song references that Swifties pull out for The Eras Tour. The lengths that some fans go to dress up for this concert are absolutely insane, but make the show all the more special. In my section alone, we had fans dressed in matching outfits to the costumes in the show, songs that referenced specific lyrics throughout Swift's discography, and even fans wearing full-bodysuits made out of friendship bracelets; just another thing to add to the entertainment of the night.
Taylor Swift performing at the Eras Tour with image provided by Disney.
One aspect of the show that I didn’t fully grasp until I was there was the sheer amount of die-hard fans in one venue. For the entire show, the crowd was singing just as loud as Swift, never letting up their energy for the full three hours. Swift has a strong and long-standing discography, so it’s no shock to see so many people know the songs to her biggest hits like “You Belong With Me” from Fearless, or “Shake it Off” from 1989, but seeing such a large audience screaming every word to songs from her newest album The Tortured Poets Department—an album that’s only been around since April 2024—was very impressive. Hearing nearly 70,000 people scream the lyrics of the same songs is a very surreal experience and it highlights the dedication and love her fans have for the art she creates, no matter how old or new.
The Mastermind of the Music
The show started off very strong with the opener, Gracie Abrams. Abrams has slowly but surely made her way into the pop field with her new album, The Secret of Us, earning her a few viral songs like “I Love You, I’m Sorry” and “That’s So True,” and her opening performance highlighted those songs. I wasn’t unfamiliar with Abrams going into this show, as she was an opener earlier in The Eras Tour, but I was pleasantly surprised at her musical ability. Her music is what you expect from a pop artist, but she could sing and run across the massive stage without breaking a sweat, where some performers may struggle. The songs she chose to perform with such short stage time worked very well, giving the audience a taste of her entire discography in hopes they’ll leave the show and listen to the rest, which is exactly what I did.
Taylor Swift performing at the Eras Tour with image provided by Disney.
The Eras show itself goes era by era—except for folklore and evermore getting a joint set—giving each album a time to shine. The show starts in the Lover era with “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” as the opening number for the show. This may seem like a peculiar choice as that song did not perform very well on the album, but the lyrics “it’s been a long time coming” make for an emotional opening line when you think about the last tour Swift went on was back in 2018. After the Lover era, she pivots and goes into her Fearless era, playing all of the classics we know and love like “You Belong With Me,” and “Love Story,” hitting the audience with a huge wave of nostalgia at the beginning of the show. The Red era is the biggest disappointment, with Swift only choosing to perform her radio hits like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” when she could have chosen some fan-favorite deep cuts like “State of Grace.” Some of this is made up with Swift singing “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault),” closing the era with a solo acoustic performance, which is very impressive. The 1989 era is by far the most energetic, playing banger after banger throughout the whole set, hyping up the audience for the last few sets of the show. The Tortured Poets Department era is the newest, debuting in May 2024 after the album was released, and it is the most theatrical era of the show. Swift recreates a church, high school bleachers, an insane asylum, a UFO, and a showgirls dressing room all within a 30-minute set, it’s very ambitious but the transitions between songs make everything work so seamlessly and creates a very visually pleasing era. Midnights being the closing era makes a lot of sense, as Swift ends the show with the album that started the idea for The Eras Tour, and goes out with a bang with “Karma” to show that every bad thing that has happened to her in her career has come back around and given her enough good karma to be able to perform every night with such a fierce crowd; a perfect metaphor to end the show on.
Before The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) was released, The Eras Tour had a completely different setup, with evermore and folklore getting their own dedicated set as well as some extra songs thrown in throughout the other eras. Getting to hear songs live that had been released only six months prior was amazing but it doesn’t mean I didn't miss the music that was cut to allow TTPD to exist. The biggest loss for me was Swift cutting “The Archer” from her Lover era, as it’s been one of my favorite songs from her entire discography for years. Some other songs cut from the setlist that have left others devastated are “Long Live” from Speak Now and “the 1” from folklore, while other songs that are less favored by fans got to stay on the setlist. Being able to add music from an album released during the tour is very impressive, but it leaves a bit of a hole in my heart for all of the music that had to get cut in order to make way for the new set.
Welcome to the Acoustic Section!
An interesting part of The Eras Tour that ensures a new show every single night is the introduction of surprise songs. Since the beginning of the tour, every night Swift will play two songs—one on guitar, one on piano—from her discography which has created a cult following of fans watching livestreams of the show to find out what song she sings every night. The rule in place for the 2023 leg of the tour was that Swift could not repeat a song, unless she messed it up, which made each surprise song special as it couldn’t be sung again. Until, in 2024, she started mashing her songs together and nicked the no repeats rule. Because of this, it has allowed Swift to tie her work together, old and new, and find new ways to run through her discography and creatively mix her songs into one cohesive mashup.
Taylor Swift playing guitar at the Eras Tour with image provided by Disney.
On night one, Swift sang a mashup of “The Albatross” from The Tortured Poets Department and “Holy Ground” from Red on the guitar, and a mashup of “Cold as You” from Taylor Swift, and “exile” from folklore on the piano. Hearing the first lyrics from “Holy Ground” sent me for a loop as just that morning I had said I would love that song as a surprise song for my show and just with the guitar surprise song, I felt satisfied with the songs she chose. Swift rarely plays songs from her first album—with debut getting no era on the tour—and to be in the audience when she sang it was very special. Although it’s not my favorite on the album, getting a debut song meant we got every single era during the show, which is rare for people to say. The entire rest of the weekend, Swift played incredible surprise songs with the night two audience getting “cowboy like me” from evermore and night three getting two songs from Lover, making a very good weekend of music.
The End of All the Endings
Before The Eras Tour, I had been to three concerts beforehand, and every show that I’ve been to has been an amazing experience, but nothing will compare to the night I had at The Eras Tour in Indianapolis. For three and a half hours, Swift and her crew give the performance of a lifetime and every show is just as energetic as the last, making every penny of the ticket worth it. Following the tour for nearly two years and seeing the changes over time and all of the people on stage getting more comfortable while performing has been so cool and each show streamed on social media has been an entertaining escape for me and thousands of others. For those who couldn’t get tickets, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie does an amazing job at capturing the essence of the live show and makes for a good background movie. The Eras Tour has broken so many records in its two years of running and will forever be known as the ambitious show that it was always set out to be.
Graphic created by Willow Emig with image provided by Disney.
Sources: TaylorSwift, Spotify, LucasOilStadium, Ticketmaster, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, Spotify, IMDb
Photos: Disney, Disney, Disney, Disney
Contact Sam Jasionowski with comments at samantha.jasionowski@bsu.edu or on Instagram @s.jasionowski.
