“It’s been a long time coming” – As she moved between every musical era of her life, Taylor Swift provided the full experience for concert attendees with props, dancers, and pyrotechnics. Performing for over 65,000 fans each night at her two sold-out shows in “Swiftie” Clara’s Levi’s Stadium, Swift’s curfew-breaking sets were nothing short of magical.
On her second to last stop of “The Eras Tour” US leg, Taylor Swift’s special guests consisted of indie-rock band HAIM and artist Gracie Abrams, who added their personal styles to the shows. Abrams recently added her popular song, “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” to her setlist after performing it with Swift in Cincinnati, and HAIM played their song “Gasoline,” which features Swift. These are two of my favorite artists, so it was a perfect way to get hype before Taylor took the stage.
My favorite mayor! Taylor Swift was named honorary mayor of Santa Clara, temporarily renamed to “Swiftie Clara” in honor of her shows. During the second night, she mentioned that her dad was the one who actually told her this. One of my favorite parts of the shows were when Levi’s Stadium’s neighboring theme park Great America shot off fireworks during both nights of her performance, providing fans with even more enchanting pictures. These fireworks described exactly how I felt watching Taylor Swift perform, and they went off during two of my personal favorite eras: Speak Now and Red.
Fans knew every word of the astounding 45-song setlist that spanned 3 and a half hours of straight dancing, singing, screaming, and crying. I had the opportunity to attend both of her sold-out shows in the Bay Area, so here is my take on the experience.
On the way to Levi’s, we opted to take the VTA and there was a general vibe of excitement as we saw many people dressed for the show. Fans donned sparkly outfits with many friendship bracelets ready for trading. I traded most of my bracelets in lines, and there were a lot of lines at this concert. This was my first time ever at Levi’s Stadium and it was crazy seeing just how many seats Taylor Swift sold out.
As the clock appeared and started counting down on the stage screen, the stadium buzzed with pure excitement. Taylor Swift kicked off her first Bay Area show in five years in the Lover era, sporting a pink bedazzled Versace bodysuit with red bottom sparkly boots on the first night and a similar blue outfit on Saturday. This era’s setlist consisted of six songs: “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” “Cruel Summer,” “The Man,” “You Need to Calm Down,” “Lover,” and “The Archer” from her 2019 award-winning album.
I felt that “Miss Americana” was the perfect opening song and this era picked up right where she left off after her Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018. During the show, Taylor talked about how she had been looking forward to playing songs from the two albums she put out during the pandemic, folklore and evermore. To this, she created “The Eras Tour”, taking the crowd on, “a little adventure, spanning 17 years of music… one era at a time.”
Taking the crowd back to her 2008 sophomore album Fearless, the iconic songs “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story” followed the fun title track. Transporting the crowd to the evermore era, Swift began the set with her opening band HAIM. When performing their song “no body, no crime” during the Friday show, the HAIM sisters came out in dresses matching their outfits from Swift’s “Bejeweled” music video. Taylor went on to put on a beautiful performance, including a long speech before jumping into her song “champagne problems”. Each show has been competing for the longest ovation after this song, and Friday night in Santa Clara topped the list at 4:01 minutes.
Not only did Swift play her most-known songs, but she made sure to include many fan favorites as well. The Reputation era was one of the coolest things to experience as someone who wasn’t able to see Taylor in 2018, especially seeing the light-up wristbands that everyone was given create a snake that moved through the crowd. Fans during this set went absolutely crazy.
When Taylor stepped out in a purple ball gown, the Speak Now era began. After the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in early July, her song “Long Live” joined “Enchanted” to complete the setlist for this era. I love this song so I’m really glad she added it before the Bay Area shows. Jumping into the Red era, the crowd sang every word back to Swift as she included three of her most-known singles from this album. “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” is such an iconic fan favorite and it was fun that the performance included both leaf and snow confetti.
The folklore era was my personal favorite era of the show, starting with Swift on top of the cabin from her 2021 GRAMMYs performance. With seven songs, the folklore set is one of the longest in The Eras Tour. With breathtaking performances of “the 1,” “betty,” “the last great american dynasty,” “august,” “illicit affairs,” “my tears ricochet,” and “cardigan,” Taylor Swift stunned in her flowy dresses.
Swift played her five most popular tracks from her chart-topping album 1989. This era was so energetic and full of dancing despite it being almost three hours into the show. “Style” was the perfect song to start this era off with and the pyrotechnics during “Bad Blood” really added to the whole experience.
Exiting 1989 and entering one of the most special parts of the show, Swift brought the crowd to the acoustic section as she reentered the stage solo with a guitar in hand. At every concert, Taylor Swift plays two surprise songs from her entire discography, and these are the two most anticipated performances of the night. On July 28th, Taylor brought out producer Aaron Dessner to perform her first song of the night, and when she announced she was playing “right where you left me” from evermore, the stadium erupted in cheers. I still cannot believe that she played this, as it was the song I wanted the most out of any possible surprise song. This is one of my favorite Taylor songs and the chance of getting it out of the over two hundred songs in her discography proved how lucky I was to hear it live. She followed this with her song “Castles Crumbling” on piano. Her surprise songs on Saturday consisted of “Stay, Stay, Stay” on guitar and “All of the Girls You Loved Before” on piano. Honestly, I didn’t even think that “All of the Girls” was an option since it is not on an official album so it was an even better surprise. Junior Cadence Tramel said, “The Eras Tour was the most amazing thing in the whole wide world! I loved getting “right where you left me” as a surprise song!” Three out of four of Santa Clara’s surprise songs had never been played live before.
Ending her concerts in the Midnights era, Taylor played seven songs including my personal favorite from the album, “Mastermind”. Her chair routine during “Vigilante Shit” and her outfit change during “Midnight Rain” definitely stood out during this set, and it was so fun dancing and singing along to her newest big hits. During the last song “Karma”, Swift was joined by her dancers all in colorful fringe jackets as confetti rained down on them. The sight was purely magical and this song was a perfect way to end the night.
She finished both nights around 11:40, breaking the 11 o’clock curfew in order to give fans the full experience. These shows were unlike any other, as they were like nine concerts in one. Being in a crowd filled with so much love, in the words of Taylor Swift, “makes me feel like I’m not alone”. Both nights were truly remembered, and I can’t wait to watch her finish her US leg of the iconic Eras Tour.