The Taylor Trilogy Part 1: Anticipation.
Are you ready for it? The Eras Tour is finally arriving in Minnesota and fans speak on the anticipation of it all in part one of Pulltab Sports 3-Part oral history about the tour that’s making the most noise. We’ll be checking in with Swifties of all ages (this is the Eras Tour after all), these next few weeks. Welcome to the Taylor Trilogy Part 1: Anticipation.
12 Grammys. Countless top hits. 10 albums. A GDP larger than most countries. And it seems like a trillion fans. Journalist Barbara Walters said it best in 2014, “Taylor Swift is the music industry.” And almost ten years later, that statement continues to grow ever more true. She is the 1 the world can’t take their eyes off of.
It’s hard to ignore the cultural impact of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour.” Every weekend, thousands of fans gather inside and outside of the nation's largest stadiums to hear over three hours of Swift’s top hits, fan favorites and deep cuts from her 10 studio albums. For Minnesota fans, the anticipation is overflowing as the “Eras Tour” is 24-hours away from taking over U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Or I guess we should say "Swiftieapolis.”
Although the tour is riding high in the fast lane, the road for Swifites was a lot like Minnesota in the summer. Full of construction and roadblocks. The Ticketmaster fiasco was chaotic and felt like death by a thousand cuts. Fans all over are still haunted by the hours of waiting and hundreds of dollars spent. Taylor Swift, if you’re reading this, your next album should have a song about Ticketmaster with the Jake Gyllenhaal treatment.
But despite the drama, fans love for Taylor remains untouchable. And the preparations have begun. The outfit planning. The friendship bracelet making. Surprise song guessing. Living for the hope of it all that these nights, June 23rd and 24th, will be sparkling.
The Eras Tour, spanning 17 years of Taylor’s career, is huge. And we’re going to give it the stage it deserves treating you to an oral history of the biggest concerts of the decade from the biggest artist on the planet.
Over the next week or two we’ll be checking in with Swifties of all ages and three critical points: pre-concert anticipation, immediate day-after reaction, and maybe a week later when the glitter settles.
You’ll be hearing from Swifties still in high school, a forty something dad going to the show solo, a bunch of diehard twenty somethings, and more:
From The Very First Night…
Anna (29): The day I got tickets was the worst/best day of my life. I sat in the queue for nine hours.
Colette (15): I am actually lucky enough to have had my mom be home and acquire the tickets for me. I don't know exactly what the process was like, but I do remember her texting me a lot with updates about how the website had crashed and she had to wait in the queue for hours. She was basically at her computer all day. I think she even cried at one point.
Teresa (51): I didn’t do anything besides give my credit card to my daughters. They waited all day and when they called to tell me they got tickets, they said they also got one for me! They were so excited and I was so happy they included me…until I got the credit card bill.
Zach (21): I can not describe the intense highs of my boyfriend getting into the seat selection page to the horrific lows I felt when the webpage wouldn’t let us buy the tickets due to some system error.
Lillian (20): I got lucky and got out of the queue in about 3 hours. That’s still way too long, but I know people who were stuck for the entire day. And because of that I managed to get great seats!
Tom (44): My family sat in the queue all day and was able to get five tickets. And since you could buy six tickets maximum, I thought I would get one and go with them. Only I was told the wrong night and ended up buying a ticket for Friday instead of Saturday. I could sell my ticket for a lot of money, but it seems like the experience is worth more than the ticket. So I’m going solo.
Anna: I have floor VIP tickets that cost almost as much as my rent… Whoops. This will be my 5th time seeing her in concert. I basically have a shrine of Taylor at my house. It’s going to be the best night of my life.
Annabelle (17): This will be my first Taylor concert. I’ve been a hardcore Swiftie since the evermore era, but I’ve loved her for as long as I can remember, I even listed “I Knew You Were Trouble” as my favorite song in my first grade memory book. I’m excited to trade bracelets with other Swifties before the concert starts.
Teresa: This will be the 5th time I’ve seen Taylor Swift with my girls. The first concert was when they were 10 and 8 years old. Now they are 22 and 20. It’s always a special mother-daughter experience that I will always cherish.
Lillian: I’ve been a fan of Taylor Swift for my whole life. In elementary school I was known as “the Taylor Swift girl.”
Lexi (21): I know all of her songs, and have been following her since her first album. This is my first concert of hers I am going to. I am so excited to experience it and see all the outfits and just have a good time!
Lexi: The more I saw reputation outfits on social media, the more I loved them. I was going to wear a white button up with the album names all over it, but I decided on the reputation era instead.
Tom: I’m wearing a pink shirt. Might tie dye a white one to match the Lover theme.
Anna: I have been thinking about my outfit and what era I want to represent for months.
Lillian: I have no idea what I’m wearing.
Colette: I am choosing a more obscure path and am going with the folklore era. I love the style of music from that album and the mysterious, haunting vibes that it gives off.
Zach: I love folklore and evermore. I really related to those albums during covid and lockdown and to get to see those songs live in person is going to be so cool and special.
Lillian: I love the song peace from folklore and I really hope it’s one of her surprise songs. But it might be “Back to December” or “Forever Winter” because of Minnesota's cold weather.
Annabelle: I think one of the surprise songs will be either “exile” or “evermore” because Bon Iver is rumored to be there at the Minneapolis shows and he’s featured on those songs.
Anna: I would also love her to sing “Right Where You Left Me,” but a lot of people think she will sing “ME!” because it is Minneapolis Pride this weekend. We will see.
Colette: The surprise song that would really send me into a coma is one that isn't actually on her albums, so I know there is a low to zero chance of it happening. That song is “Carolina.” It is maybe one of my favorite songs of all time and I think I would collapse on the spot if I heard those lyrics start to be uttered out of her mouth.
Tom: I have no idea what the surprise song will be. My daughter just explained to me how that all works.
Zach: I wouldn’t be surprised to hear exile or evermore since they both feature Bon Iver who lives just across the river.
Zach: That’s when I became an even bigger fan of her music, with the release of folklore and evermore. The poetic lyrics and intricately crafted worlds of those songs really resonated with me at the time and really pushed Taylor from just being an amazing artist to one of the best artists of all time in my mind, to the level of true superstar that so few artists have achieved.
Annabelle: My absolute favorite thing about Taylor’s songs is the storytelling and lyricism. I find her songs to be very relatable as a teenage girl, especially since she wrote a lot of them as a teenager.
Teresa: I think she is a good role model for my daughters. She is a strong woman that isn’t afraid to show her emotions.
Lexi: I love how diverse her discography is, and how there is a song for every mood and feeling. I also think that she always stays true to herself, and is willing to speak up about issues she finds important.
Anna: When she talks to her crowds, she makes you feel like you’re having a one on one conversation with her. She also is incredibly supportive of others in the music industry.
Tom: She is a role model for my daughters, is insanely successful and talented, and seems to care about people despite her fame. So far, she defies the cliché of being a rock star.
Lillian: I love to see how much she’s grown in terms of sound, vocals, songwriting, etc.
Colette: She is just so unapologetically herself. She may be goofy, but that's the best part of her personality. She's not out on stage cussing out people or making inappropriate innuendos. She's just telling cat jokes.
And so it goes… The city prepares for back to back nights of a Taylor Swift takeover as the concerts are just days away. We at Pulltab Sports wait for the next chapter of stories from the Swifties. Prepare yourself to hear about all the excitement as the Taylor Trilogy covers the oral history, post-concert.
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