Taylor Swift may play the grown-up and slightly jaded woman with a lot on her mind (and just as much to get off) on her latest album. But at a sold-out Quicken Loans Arena last night, she was still living out her teenage fantasies of princes, princesses, and fairy-tale dreams.
Almost every song was its own compressed theatrical production, with dancers, staircases, set and costume changes, exploding confetti, and even some good old-fashioned pyrotechnics working alongside Swift and the nine other musicians onstage. (The giant frames at the back of the stage that beamed live video from the concert was an inspired touch.)
There were ballet dancers, acrobats dangling from gigantic bells suspended over the stage, at least three Hee Haw-type skits going on during the front-porch scene of “Mean,” and a full wedding happening during “Speak Now,” which ended with Swift strolling through the Q and playing a few songs from the back of the arena (including a mini-medley of songs by Ohio artists, like Macy Gray’s “I Try”).
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2011.
What, Nobody got shot?