I had the chance to watch the Taylor Swift Eras Tour film which opened this past weekend. This concert film was shot over the course of her six-night stop LA at the SoFi Stadium in August, and it garnered over $95M in sales during its opening weekend across North America.
I personally thought the show was well done. The way it was shot with all the close-ups, wide-angles and panoramic views made for quite an immersive experience. Let’s be honest, it’s always fun seeing your favourite artist live, but if you’re stuck in the nosebleeds, then you’re going to be watching on a screen anyway, right? Might as well get the full-fledged screen experience with a side of popcorn!
It’s also a neat concept to have screenings like this in theatres as a way to let people enjoy a show that might be largely out of their grasp to attend in person due to the high demand and difficulty in getting tickets. It’s also one of the few times that people will not get annoyed by your cellphone lighting up to take pictures as it did feel like more of a concert experience than watching a film.
Now, I will admit, that I have not been a “Swiftie” since the beginning. I always liked a few songs here and there over the years, like the commercial hits, Blank Space and Shake it Off from her 2014 1989 album and Fifteen from her Fearless album, but it wasn’t until the Reputation album came out that I really started to take notice of her. Perhaps it was the edginess of that era that drew my attention. I do commend her ability to be so versatile in experimenting with different personas and genres.
Like any artist, Taylor Swift is subjected to public scrutiny, but I truly think she is a very talented artist. She writes all of her own songs (with some collaborations on later albums, of course), and if you really listen to the lyrics of her songs, it’s pure poetry. The way she can make what could be conversational banter into melodic song lyrics that just work is a talent that should not go unnoticed.
While I have retroactively taken a liking to all of her past and present music, in the recent past, I was particularly drawn to her two 2020 albums, Folklore and Evermore. These were quietly released during the height of the pandemic and were met with a lot of deserved praise and recognition with Folklore winning the Album of the Year award at the Grammy’s the following year and Evermore being nominated for the same category. That’s a pretty impressive feat if you ask me. I have too many favourites to name but a notable few are My Tears Ricochet, The 1, Betty, August, Invisible String, and Exile from Folklore, and Willow and Happiness from Evermore.
Whether you are a fan or not, you have to hand it to Taylor for adapting to the unforeseen circumctances of the pandemic which saw worldwide cancellations of large-scale events, including her planned tour for her 2019 Lover album. With the two surprise albums, fans were never left without new music for too long.
Going back to the ERAS tour film, apparently, the transition from the stadium to the screen was not without additional edits needing to be made. This article from Vanity Fair states that five performances were cut from the screen version – I’m assuming in order to accommodate an allotted time or perhaps it was intentional so that anyone who is slated to see her live still has performances to look forward to that weren’t already shown. Who knows.
It honestly made no difference for me considering, it is highly unlikely that I’ll be seeing her live. I never did get a presale code to snag tickets to her Toronto shows next year, and unless I have missed something, general sales have not gone on sale, and who knows if they even will? I’ll never understand the whole “verified fan” concept. Controlling ticket sales by trying to eliminate bots and scalpers but still depriving actual fans of being able to get tickets. Those ‘You’re on the waitlist but hang tight‘ emails felt like a complete tease. Hang tight for what, exactly? Doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Anyways, the film definitely delivered with some fantastic transitions from one era to the next, most notably the intro to Taylor’s Reputation era – one my personal favourites. The pyrotechnics and visuals were really something else and you could fee the energy of the enormous sea of people through the screen. I give the film a 10/10. I would say that even if you have already seen her live or are planning to see her live, you should consider watching the film version to get a different perspective. The live experience will aways hit different anyway, so I wouldn’t really view it as much of a spoiler. So if you’re a Swiftie and haven’t seen the film yet, I recommend it.
Sarah Warsi 