Taylor Swift’s “Era” Tour

by Karen Kohler

Five years after her “Reputation” tour, Miss Swift finally hits the road again on a stadium tour.  This time she’s featuring all of her eras, not just one, making for a three hour and 15 minute setlist consisting of 44 songs.  Two of these are surprise songs that change every night and are done stripped down, one on the guitar and one on piano.  The surprise song from her latest show on Saturday 3/25 in Vegas, she performed the beautifully romantic “Cowboy like Me” with Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons.

Since she hasn’t had the opportunity to tour “Lover,” “Folklore,”  “Evermore,” or “Midnights” yet, she is giving more focus to these albums.  It is to the disappointment of some fans that she doesn’t have any songs from her debut album on the setlist and only has “Enchanted” from “Speak Now.”  However, it makes sense because she’s been touring the songs from those albums for a long time now.  Also, she has not re-recorded either of these albums yet, which may or not be related because she hasn’t re-recorded “1989” or “Reputation” yet either and she’s performing a set for each of those.  

Taylor did not hold back in any sense on the production, with outfit changes for each era including the surprise songs, and there’s an outfit change in the “Midnight” set so that’s 11.  She has an outfit change, though it’s not a full one, during “Midnight Rain” on-stage where she’s covered by umbrellas her backup dancers are holding.  Her transition from the surprise songs to the “Midnights” set caused a lot of confusion at first because she quite literally dove off the stage and there was a video of her swimming during the transition on the TVs and backdrop.  She is, predictably and perhaps unfortunately, not actually swimming in a sea under the stage, she just dives into a pile of pillows and does an outfit change.  Also of note is her set being complete with what is often coined as the “Lover House,” which is the house shown in the “Lover” music video and has a room for each era.  

She opened the tour on 3/17 in Glendale, Arizona and there was so much excitement surrounding this that the city was renamed to “Swift City.”  She opens with “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince ” and the “Lover” era, which seems fitting because this is where she left off.  She had begun “Loverfest” with a few shows when it got cut off due to COVID.  Then, she ends her set quite perfectly with her most recent, the “Midnights” era.