There’s no wrong way to experience The Eras Tour
Nothing can compare to seeing Taylor Swift’s epic, career-spanning Eras Tour in-person. Or at least, that’s what I thought after seeing her perform at Ford Field in June.
Then I saw Swift’s concert film in IMAX and began having second thoughts, which were fully verified upon watching The Eras Tour at home when it became available to rent before, finally, watching The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) on Disney+ earlier this month.
Having now seen the Eras Tour in every possible configuration, I can confidently say that there is no wrong way to experience the Eras Tour.
While it is true that I wouldn’t trade the experience of seeing Swift perform for three-and-a-half hours live, I gained a deeper appreciation for the spectacle and artistry of this once-in-a-lifetime tour with each new medium.
Attending the tour in person is an experience that will fill you with adrenaline. The audience’s applause when she first took the stage at Ford Field is the loudest I have ever heard a crowd, and it’s not particularly close, even after covering both of the Detroit Lions’ home playoff games in the same venue earlier this year.
But that also means you miss out on some of the intricate details that go into making this tour as special as it is, of which there are many (she is a self-proclaimed mastermind, after all).
If you are seated on the floor, for example, it is difficult to take in the sheer scale of the production; because the stage is so tall, you cannot see any of the graphics on the entirely-LED catwalk unless you’re up in the stands.
If you are up in the stands, you’re probably missing out on just how much of a show Swift’s band and dancers are putting on.
With choreography led by Mandy Moore, who Swift met through mutual friend Emma Stone after Moore worked on La La Land, it should come as no surprise that The Eras Tour is more a work of theatre than your typical concert.
That’s on full display during songs like “tolerate it,” from the album evermore, when Raphael Thomas plays the role of Swift’s ambivalent lover in a performance that makes the album track from Swift’s lowest-selling original album one of the show’s highlights. Seeing it in IMAX, Thomas’ careful facial expressions and quiet mannerisms are on full display in a way that you likely wouldn’t notice in a stadium unless you have Swift’s point-of-view from atop the kitchen table prop.
However, while the evermore era benefits most from being translated into a visual medium, there are curious editing choices during that and other eras.
When Swift sits down at her moss-covered piano for her standing-ovation earning performance of “champagne problems,” for example, there is a noticeable heat shimmer making the image slightly wavey due, presumably, to use of a very long focal length.
Swift’s speech is also shortened, presumably to get the film down to its runtime of two hours and 49 minutes. In doing so, however, they cut one of the most touching moments of the night, in which Swift explains that the song she just performed, “marjorie,” written about her late grandmother Marjorie Finlay, actually features backing vocals from Finlay, who, Swift explains, was herself an opera singer and “would have loved to perform” in stadiums. Thanks to the backing vocals each night Swift performs, as attendees turn on their cellphone flashlights each night, “she just did, really.”
During “willow,” another song with phenomenal choreography – utilizing glowing orange orbs that have, somewhat shockingly, never made it into an Errors Tour compilation by being dropped, and leaning into the allegations that Swift is practicing witchcraft – would have benefitted from holding a single head-on wide shot as Swift swishes her cape through the air and her dancers, glowing orbs in hand, recoil backwards as if she has just cast a spell on them. Instead, there are numerous cuts between tight shots of Swift and the dancers reacting.
Other editing choices mean the film misses some key elements that make the tour such a fun live experience.
During the first era of the night, when Swift instructs the audience “let me, see your, hands!” during her performance of “You Need To Calm Down” from the album Lover, the camera curiously stays focused on Swift and her dancers rather than pulling back for a wide shot showing the entire stadium swaying back and forth in sync.
Moments earlier, when the LED bracelets that were handed out at every show, but were beefed up for the three nights being filmed so that the effects would be more visible on camera, create the effect of a rainbow washing over the stadium after Swift declares that “shade never made anybody less gay,” there is no wide shot of the audience for that, either.
As the show begins to near its conclusion with the Midnights era, Swift builds a moment of audience interaction into the song “Anti-Hero,” pausing for the audience to take the first “hi” of the song’s final chorus and wave to her so that she can take the second, background “hi” and wave back. However, director Sam Wrench lingers on the crowd shot even as Swift returns the audience’s greetings.
Four songs later, during the second-to-last performance of the night in “Mastermind,” I was left desiring a shot replicating one shown on the stadium screens in which a direct overhead angle highlights the most complex choreography of the evening as her dancers swiftly glide across the stage, made to resemble a chess board, which seems chaotic at ground level but is revealed to be carefully, artfully organized only when you can see all the pieces working together as a whole.
Still, it’s a minor miracle that the entire film was shot without any cameras making an appearance and with relatively little focus on the giant screen behind her displaying the stadium’s camera feed.
While being translated to film generally elevated narrative elements of individual songs, some overarching storylines from the concert were missing in the theatrical version of the film.
When Swift burns the Lover house, for example, it is a three-song arc comprised of “The Archer,” “Wildest Dreams” and “Bad Blood.” Because the former two songs were not included in the theatrical release, we go from the Lover house being fully intact at the end of “Lover” to being a burnt-up shell that topples over in “Bad Blood.”
Thankfully, that is rectified in the Disney+ version of the film, which not only includes the songs that were deleted from the theatrical version of the film, but also edits them into chronological order rather than tacking them onto the end, as was the case when the film was available to rent on demand.
In the otherwise phenomenally edited reputation era, the cameras miss the visuals on screen during “Look What You Made Me Do” indicating that the glass boxes holding prisoner Swift’s dancers – adorned in costumes from each of her previous eras – have shattered as Swift explains why the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now with a piercing “Oh, cause she’s dead!” as she falls to her knees, setting them free for the song’s final chorus, which makes it a bit confusing when they show up at the foot of Swift’s elevated platform in the diamond center stage.
Watching the film at home, with a pair of headphones, however, gives you a completely new auditory experience. The drums are crunchy, the guitars are crisp and you’ll notice note changes you didn’t know existed.
This is particularly noticeable during “Look What You Made Me Do,” with the addition of an electric guitar that goes up when the rest of the song goes down, giving it a fresh twist that turns it into a full-on rock song. (If rumors of a live album don’t pan out, “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version) (Live From TS The Eras Tour)” is a necessity on reputation (Taylor’s Version).)
During “Shake It Off,” from pop bible 1989, the addition of a jazzy saxophone to the bridge makes “this sick beat” even more dance-worthy.
While the note change in “the 1” has been a popular topic of discussion since the song was first added to the setlist, replacing “invisible string” after just a few shows, you will find when listening through headphones that there are several more powerful note changes throughout the show. One of the best is a prolonged “let the games begi-i-in” during “…Ready For It?”
Those powerful notes are in addition to quirky inflections that add a bit of fun to certain songs, making the live performances more unique.
That’s on display during songs like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” when Swift squeaks during the second verse that her muse would find his peace of mind “with some indie record that’s MUCH cooler than mine.”
Ultimately, the tour’s greatest strength is that it’s clear how much fun everyone on stage – from Swift to her dancers and long-time band members – are having, and that joy is infectious whether you’re watching from the comfort of your home, with a bucket of popcorn in a movie theater, or in a stadium with 70,000 other fans.
“Let me tell you my secret little dream for this evening. These are songs that I have written about my life, or things I’ve felt at one point in time, whether I was a teenager, in my 20’s, or a couple years ago,” Swift says in her first monologue of the night. “But after tonight, when you hear these songs out and about in the world, my dream is that you’re going to think about tonight and the memories we made here together.”
We certainly will.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) is available now on Disney+. The Eras Tour is returning to North America this fall, including three shows in Indianapolis and six shows in Toronto.