Review: Taylor Swift at The MCG

Taylor Swift at The MCG
Friday, February 16, 2023

Can we ever have too much of a good thing?

Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is a spectacle unlike any other. And its MCG edition was the ultimate coliseum pinnacle: not only was last Friday’s show to 96,000 screaming Swifties the biggest show she’s ever done—like, ever—it was the first of three as she continued that domination all weekend.

It wasn’t easy to get tickets, it wasn’t cheap (especially for those of us coming from abroad), and accom was at a premium. But ask anyone who was there on Friday, and they’d swear it was all worth it.

Swift’s gift is in relating to her fans. She speaks our language, and we reward her with a kind of adulation that’s unlike anything seen for a solo pop star. She’s her own biggest critic; she’s a romantic at heart; her art is her passion. She embraces the teenager and the nostalgic in all of us.

Eras itself is a phenomenon. Working through nine of her albums with barely a hit single skipped across three and a half hours, it was certainly an endurance test for the senses.

“My name is Taylor, I’ll be your host,” Swift exclaimed during her Lover portion to kick off the night. Cruel Summer was an immediate highlight, and the moment reduced several in the audience to tears, just taking in the enormity of all that was before us.

Feminist anthem The Man saw the huge set transform into a multi-level office building, in which CEO Tay opined how much easier her life might have been had she been born a man. So far, so spectacular, as You Need to Calm Down, Lover and The Archer saw out Act 1.

Heading back to her roots for the Fearless era included megahits Love Story and You Belong With Me nice and early; unlike previous tours, we were treated to complete versions of these classics rather than mashups and snippets, and it made the night all the better.

Some albums took up more time than others, with recent successes Folklore and Midnights producing seven tracks each, but highlights were everywhere.

As we saw in Perth circa 2018, Reputation is an album that completely owns live, and Ready For It?, Don’t Blame Me and Look What You Made Me Do all featured eye-popping feats of live production genius to go with their dirty electronic beats.

And while Speak Now was glazed over compared to the other records with just two tracks, when one of those is the massive anthem Long Live, it’s always going to be an unforgettable moment.

Evermore and Folklore featured at opposite ends of the night, providing some introspective folk but also transcendent visuals. Champagne Problems drew huge applause as Swift sat solo at a grand piano, resplendent in a long yellow dress surrounded by a cave of trees, while later Betty and Illicit Affairs were clear singalong favourites.

If it all proved the consistency of Swift’s already vast catalogue (lest we forget she’s still just 34), two albums particularly stood out. Red not only boasts her earliest pop crossovers, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble, but also the song Swift acknowledged to the crowd that is most often considered her fave among fans: All Too Well. In all its 10-minute glory, it was the song of the night for many. As a bonus, the encore even featured a ‘surprise section', in which she performed a spine-tingling solo rendition of Red’s popular title track.

The other era to win the night was undoubtedly 1989, which remains an unparalleled hit fest even by Swift’s standards, as Style, Blank Space, Shake it Off, Bad Blood and Wildest Dreams had the crowd in raptures.

If it all sounds like A LOT, it was. At 45 tracks, perhaps the only material that suffered a little was the Midnights tracks making up one of the longest final encores in memory. Too much of a good thing? Perhaps, but even then, Anti-Hero was all class, Bejewelled simply shimmered with its dazzling lights, and Karma concluded the night once and for all in a dramatic and deserved fireworks display.

Other than hitting up more Australian cities next time (e.g., Perth), it was impossible to ask for more from Taylor Swift. In an endurance display that outshone even the Boss and his renowned three-hour run times, she’s put contemporaries and their 90-minute glorified festival headline shows on notice.

This is how an artist treats their fans, digs deep into their back catalogue, and respects hard-working audiences amidst a cost of living crisis. She’s number one for a reason.

HARVEY RAE