The Eras Tour
Our Eras Tour Experience | Indianapolis Night 1 | November 2024
(This post is going to be all about our concert experience and me sharing about how much Taylor’s music has meant to me over the years, so if that doesn’t interest you, feel free to skip. Regular adventure/life posts will resume shortly.)
Despite being a ‘Swiftie’ since 2007, this is the first time I’ve ever seen Taylor perform in person. I always thought about it when a new tour was announced, but the timing was just never right and I didn’t want to work through the details that come with fighting for tickets and traveling to a city for a concert. But when she announced the Eras Tour in November of 2022, I just had a feeling that this would be the perfect show to attend, that I’d regret not going if I didn’t. So I signed up for Ticketmaster Presale/‘verified fan’, just based off of where I thought we’d be at that time. And lo and behold, I got that coveted ‘verified fan’ status for Philadelphia night 2! However, because Curtis’ schedule always changes, I wasn’t totally committed to the idea…and even if I was, I doubt I would have succeeded at getting tickets based on how poorly Ticketmaster handled that whole ordeal. I decided that if it was meant to be — if the planets and the fates and all the stars aligned, and we ended up in the same city at the same time, I’d just buy resale tickets.
The tour started in March of 2023, and I watched it all happen on a grainy livestream from our hotel room in Oswego, New York. As she played through the hits of each era, I was taken back to where I was and what I was going through during each one. The show looked like it would indeed be incredible to experience, but I told myself I could be content with watching each one on different livestreams — truly, I was fortunate to be able to do so, it was like being present at every show, having a different view and experience every time! And each show truly was fun to watch, just to see how she would change up the costumes and ‘surprise songs’ every night, and there were even some other surprises thrown in along the way — including new album announcements and releases, music video premieres, and some unhinged moments.
The tour went on, and so did our plans — we ended up leaving the Philadelphia area just days before her shows, so it’s alright that I didn’t get tickets to that night. We went West to Iowa and eventually our Canada and Alaska trip, she was out East. Then we made our way East to North Carolina, and she moved West. I’m not impulsive enough to just buy tickets and fly across the country alone, so I continued watching livestreams and started to doubt I’d be able to see her.
And then, she announced that the last leg of the tour would return to the US, after spending most of 2024 overseas, and once again I had my shot. There were only 3 US cities on the list this time, Miami, New Orleans, and Indianapolis. The time would be roughly around when Curtis would be working in the Chicago area, so I signed up for the Indianapolis presale. My sisters that are also fans signed up for that weekend, using multiple accounts to try to have a better chance at getting verified. Me, I didn’t even make Curtis sign up, I just used my own account and said ‘if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen.’ And what do you know — I got verified again! No other people that I know that signed up got it! I discussed it with Curtis and my sisters, and decided to seriously try to get 4 tickets.
I’m definitely an overthinker and over-planner when it comes to these things, so I researched all the best tips to survive the Ticketmaster ‘great war.’ Then 2 days before the sale happened, Taylor announced that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) would be released on October 27 — my birthday! I took that as a sign that somehow things would work out. 2 days later, I anxiously sat in the Ticketmaster waiting room, waiting for the sale to start. The appointed hour arrived, and I was put into the queue — 13k people ahead of me. After 35 long minutes, I was ushered onto the page to select tickets, and then the real stress began — I would select a ticket, and it would immediately become unavailable. I started just clicking anything I could that had 4 tickets together, and after many failed attempts, one actually went through!! Suddenly it was official — we had secured tickets to the Eras Tour! Now, all we had to do was wait…
…1 year and 3 months later, the day had finally arrived. Amazingly, Curtis’ schedule didn’t change, and even lined up with the show perfectly! We traveled to Indianapolis together with my sisters, got all dressed up, and made our way to the stadium. For our outfits, Sarah wore a silver sparkly dress, representing the song ‘mirrorball’ from folklore, and Gina wore a long brown dress and cape that represented ‘willow’ from evermore. (The sister albums 🙂 ) Curtis and I wore looks inspired by Taylor & Travis’ outfits that they wore to the US Open this fall — the idea came about because I already had a red gingham dress, and I bought a white bucket hat for Curtis that I painted to make look like the Gucci hat Travis wore. And Sarah let me borrow her Red cardigan because it was a little chilly that night. 🙂
We made it through the crowds, everyone dressed in outfits that represent different eras, looks that Taylor has worn, or inside jokes (with more sequins than we’d ever seen in one place) and made our way to our seats in the lower bowl area. Not only was this our first concert together, it was also our first time ever being in a stadium, and the most people we’ve ever been in a room with. It was a packed house with over 69,000 people in attendance — a record for any concert that’s taken place in this stadium, and there were 2 more record breaking nights after it! We chatted with people around us, exchanged friendship bracelets and tattooed the number 13 on our hands, and waited anxiously for the concert to begin.
The opener was Gracie Abrams, and I realized I knew more of her music than I thought I did. She was so sweet and an excellent performer, and got the crowd excited and energized in preparation for Taylor. She played 9 songs over about 40 minutes, then we waited another ~30 for Taylor to begin. Any open seats during the opener filled up, making it a truly packed house. Finally, it was the moment we had been waiting for: a giant clock appeared on the screen, counting down the remaining 2:24 minutes before the show began. From our seats that were facing right at the stage, we could see the cleaning cart that Taylor hides inside being wheeled in under the stage.
Now, at this point I had seen the show over 100 times on livestreams, and thought for sure that the intro and seeing her for the first time would make me emotional. But the show began, and I felt nothing but pure joy, and the next 3 1/2 hours seemed to fly by as we sang and danced the whole night away. It’s hard to describe to someone who’s never seen the show before or doesn’t listen to her music, but it was truly an experience unlike any we’ve had before — being united with over 69k people over the next 3 1/2 hours by music, by nostalgia, girlhood, love, female rage, and all the fun little things that make being a Swiftie so much fun. Taylor and her band, backup singers, and dancers put on a spectacular show that I doubt any concert we attend in the future with ever be able to live up to. It didn’t matter how many times I’d seen the show before, it was absolutely worth going to see in person, and I’ll forever be thankful that I had the chance to see it live!
(Now for some even more rambling for anyone who doesn’t think I’m crazy yet)
I became a Swiftie in 2007. It was right after I made my Facebook account in October of my freshman year of high school. Several of my friends made their status the lyrics to one of her debut album’s singles, Our Song: “Our song is slamming screen doors, sneaking out late tapping on your window.” Having never heard the song (or not knowing it was a song), I was a little confused until someone actually shared a link to the music video of her song, “Teardrops on My Guitar.” I watched the video, and was an instant fan. I loved the dress she wore, and related to the lyrics of longing for someone who doesn’t return the feelings, or even seem to know you exist. (For anyone wondering…yes, I was relating it to how I felt about Curtis at the time.) I then went through the other music videos on her channel, including Our Song, Picture to Burn, and Should’ve Said No. I loved everything I heard, and so began my Life as a Swiftie.
Over the years, every album that Taylor has released has somehow been exactly what I needed at that stage of my life. Though our lives are so different, the way she writes makes the lyrics broad enough that I could relate every one of them to something in my life. Since she’s a couple years older than me, I like to think of her as an older sister guiding me through life. Her sophomore album, “Fearless,” was the anthem of my high school years, carrying me through the ups and downs of being a teenager, guiding me through happiness and heartbreak. Her song “Fifteen” reminded me that all this was temporary, and that I had no idea how life would play out, but everything would somehow work out. “The Best Day” reminded me to appreciate my biggest supporter, who I could always trust, my mom. And I was obsessed with the “Love Story” music video, which had strong Pride & Prejudice vibes (from the 2005 movie, specifically).
Her third album, Speak Now, came out during my senior year of high school. I guess I was going through it at the time, because my favorite songs on the album were some of the sadder ones about regret and heartbreak, “Back to December” and “Last Kiss”. The song “Never Grow Up” also hit especially close to home as I knew that soon enough, I’d be moving out and actually become an adult.
Red, the fourth album, came out right before my 20th birthday, and though it was dubbed as ‘the breakup album’ and I was very happy in my relationship with Curtis, I still found a lot of it relatable, and enjoyed the sounds of it even more as she was moving away from making country music. The album walked me through what it’s like to be in your early 20’s, figuring out life and falling in love, and how out of control it all can feel. As a very nostalgic person who loves to remember all the little details about how I felt in certain moments, “All Too Well” was such a meaningful song — even if it was heavily personal for her and written about one specific relationship, it just made me think about all the little moments in Curtis and my relationship that built us into who we were, which at that time was boyfriend/girlfriend 10 months in to a long distance relationship, desperate to be together and talking seriously of marriage.
1989 was next, which came out on my 22nd birthday. This album was her first official ‘pop’ album, a rebirth of sorts, redefining who she was in the music industry. And at that time, Curtis and I had been married for over a year, and I had been living in Arizona for a year, and was also relearning and redefining myself as an adult.
Then came the Reputation era…an album that came out after she had been cancelled (wrongly), and it brought a new edginess side to her music. The year was 2017, and we were in the thick of our complicated move to Hawaii after the Navy had changed our plans last minute. These are entirely different life situations, but that edginess and attitude was just what I needed to get through some of the most stressful and difficult days of my life. But intertwined in that album that was presented as her reclaiming her reputation were a lot of songs about the beginning of a relationship, with messages of hope, yearning, and self retrospect that also reminded me that not everything in life had to be about the problems I was facing, that I needed to focus on the good and beautiful things around me.
Her seventh album, “Lover,” came out the day before Curtis left on his longest underway while assigned to his submarine. We danced to the title song in our little house on Oahu, sad and anticipating our next reunion. The words of the verse felt especially relevant as I traveled across the ocean twice over the next month to see him for just a couple days during that ride, and we listened to the song together again in Alaska, then in California: “Can I go where you go?/Can we always be this close?/Forever and Ever…” I had many other favorite songs on this album, but another that felt significant to me was Cornelia Street —though she sings about fear and uncertainty in a relationship, but I instead related the lyrics to thinking about all the different streets I’ve walked down and places I’ve lived that had been temporary, though I didn’t necessarily want to be where I was or return to some of those places, there’s always a feeling of nostalgia that hits when we’re about to leave a place, or in remembering all the different streets I’ve walked.
”folklore,” the first pandemic album, was released the day we left Hawaii (it was released at 12am Eastern, so I was able to listen to it at 6pm Hawaii time). I watched the cardigan music video and listened to a couple songs before going on our last ever walk on the marsh trail. The song “exile” struck me as a way of saying goodbye to a place where I didn’t belong anymore. The second pandemic album, “evermore”, came out just a few months later. Both of these albums makes me think of all the time we spent together, cozy in our little Omaha apartment. With these albums, she explored a new style of writing and music — proving further that whatever mood I’m in, there’s always a perfect album to listen to.
When she announced her tenth album, “Midnights”, she introduced it as ‘an album about 13 sleepless nights in her life’. My first thought was “well that’s not relatable, I sleep very well thank you.” But literally days later, after month of job interviews, Curtis accepted his new job that sounded so right for us, and immediately I started feeling anxious, kept awake all night thinking through everything in our lives that led us to this decision. And that’s exactly what the album was about — thinking through every decision you’ve made, every relationship you’ve had, all the mistakes you’ve made, that have led you to where you are. The song “Mastermind” might be my favorite out of all of her songs. And finally, The Tortured Poets Department came out last spring, and to me this album means making a choice and pursuing it regardless of what others say because you know it’s what you want and what’s right for you, if just for an ‘era’ of your life, which is exactly what vanlife is for us. Songs like “Florida!!!” And “The Bolter” feel relevant to this chapter of our lives, but the song “So High School” is easily my favorite from the album, because when I hear it I have all these flashbacks in my mind of Curtis and I in high school.
I truly can’t imagine what life would be like without Taylor’s music — it would surely be a less colorful and expressive world. I’m thankful for what she’s given us through her songwriting and after seeing her this night, I know I’ll always be a fan of her work. Hopefully this is the first of many other times that we’re able to see her perform!
