In case you live under a rock, Taylor Swift was in South Florida for a three-day marathon of concerts, kicking off her Eras Tour after a summer break.
Boca magazine was able to secure two tickets to day one of her Miami show at the Hard Rock Stadium, and so I invited my friend and mega fan, Abbi (“I think I’m going to throw up” she said when I told her the news). She first saw Swift when she was a little-known artist playing at her Virginia university, and this show would be Abbi’s fourth.
For me, on the other hand, it would be my first, a sort of debutante ball for the world of Taylor Swift. I knew Swift’s music, could sing along to quite a few songs, but a certified Swiftie I am not. What was I walking into? Would fans smell that I was a fraud?
The party started upon entering the stadium, where fans were dressed in outfits that coincided with Swift’s music videos and on-stage performances. We were given bracelets that lit up in unison in different colors to coordinate with the songs Swift performed. Singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams opened, and much of the crowd sang along (she also opened for fellow pop princess Olivia Rodrigo).
But we were here to see T Swift, the woman who made a new hoard of NFL fans by dating Travis Kelce, the one who inspired wrists filled with friendship bracelets, and countless memes, reels, TikTok videos, and a generation of fans passing down their fandom to their children—there were many mother-daughter duos at the show.
When she arrived on stage, it was pandemonium. Decked out in a red bodysuit with matching red boots and a guitar slung across her shoulder, she said to the sold out crowd of 61,000 screaming fans: “Oh Miami, we are so back.”
“We’re about to go on a little adventure together and that adventure is going to span 18 years of music, and we’re going to go one era at a time.”
The Eras Tour is just that, a journey from Swift’s debut album “Taylor Swift” in 2006 to her newest “The Tortured Poets Department.” Throughout the three-and-a-half-hour show (a bit long for me), she went back to her country roots (“Fearless,” when she threw out a guitar pick), delighted the crowd with deep cuts during an acoustic session (“This Is Me Trying”), had the stadium on their feet to pop hits (“We Are Never Getting Back Together” with her dancer Kameron Saunders proclaiming, “Pero like, never!”), and mellowed out with more thoughtful, ethereal sounds (“Willow” and “Cardigan”).
In true South Florida fashion, a light drizzle started up during the song “Lover” and would continue on and off during the show. The crowd didn’t seem to notice, and neither did Swift and her backup vocalists, band and dancers. Her hair, once neatly blown out, “returned to factory settings,” as she has joked in the past, to blonde curls. It was a grounding moment, that she is in fact a human who falls victim to humidity.
“We don’t mind the rain up here, do you mind the rain out there?” she said, smiling.
I had guessed that because we were in the Sunshine State, it would only be right for Swift to perform “Florida” during her opening show. I was right—but even better, Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine came on stage to perform her part of the duet. Many concert goers in the crowd were probably too young to remember when “Dog Days Are Over” ruled the radio, but I do, and it was a special treat to be able to see this powerhouse singer live.
Of course, I wondered, would Post Malone make an appearance as well for “Fortnite”? One of my favorite of her newer songs, I’ve been enjoying watching Post Malone explore hip hop, rock and country (and nailing them all). Alas, he did not surprise us on stage, but the choreography for this song was probably the most memorable—Swift and dancer Jan Ravnik performed on a spinning, off-kilter stage with two desks, clicking away at typewriters while Ravnik utilized gravity to slide and climb through the desks and chairs in a powerful dance number (that included a one-armed pushup).
There was costume change after costume change for Swift with matching microphones to boot—including donning Miami Hurricanes colors during “Style,” coincidence?—as we traveled through 18 years of 11 studio albums. While the pop songs are fun, I resonated most with her “Folklore” era, personified with a cabin hidden in a forest as she sang from the rooftop or while playing at the moss-covered piano. She wrote the album during COVID, she explained, a sort of catharsis.
Catharsis is probably the right word to describe the concert for Swifties—each can relate to a different era of her music, each lyric resonating with them in a different way when they needed it most. While I didn’t walk away worshipping at the altar of Taylor, I did exit the stadium with a new-found respect for the artist who has been at it for 18 years.
Visit us on Instagram at @bocamag to see our reel from the show!
Set List
Ms Americana & the Heartbreak Prince
Cruel Summer
The Man
You Need to Calm Down
Lover
Fearless
You Belong with Me
Love Story
22
We Are Never Getting Back Together
Trouble
All Too Well (the 10 minute version)
Enchanted
…Ready for it?
Delicate
Don’t Blame Me
Look What You Made Me Do
Cardigan
Betty
Champagne Problems
August
Illicit Affairs
My Tears Ricochet
Marjorie
Willow
Style
Blank Space
Shake it Off
Wildest Dreams
Bad Blood
But Daddy I Love Him
Florida (with Florence Welch)
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me
Down Bad
Fortnight
The Smallest Man That Ever Lived
I Can Do it With a Broken Heart
Tim McGraw/Timeless (mashup on guitar)
This is Me Trying/Daylight (mashup on piano)
Lavender Haze
Anti-Hero
Midnight Rain
Vigilante Shit
Bejeweled
Mastermind
Karma
