I think I’d agree with Radiodead if this were a normal sized band’s club tour, but it’s Taylor Swift playing stadiums. I have to expect that if it is chunked out by era, there are going to be grand enough stage changes to make it feel worth it in a way that jumping from the 1 back to enchanted to karma wouldn’t (though talk about a dream 3 song run am I right?!). Stadium shows outside of Springsteen are at least partly about the theatrics and I think they will be more effective if going section by section through her catalog. Medleys are bad, but I think one of them is fine and helps at least a few people not go home disappointed. Alternatively, the enchanted/wildest dreams mashup was incredible on the 1989 tour, she can get away with one of those, too.
Someone fill me in with all this Springsteen show info... does he do like 40 songs a night or something?
I think she might just group Taylor's versions together and do an acoustic set which also includes evermore and folklore as well as like Lover and Delicate But yeah no way to avoid that there will only be a few rotating songs/ room for special guests no way Haim and maybe Phoebe don't join her for something
30-35 songs, 2 and a half to 3 hours, different setlist every night Which you can't do with pop music
You really, really can't. As much fun as I'd have with Taylor Swift entering her Phish era, I just have a feeling the audience wouldn't enjoy that bc it goes against the intricate choreography and sharp performances that characterize live pop music. (Live sometimes being with a grain of salt, obv.)
I think like she’s done with past tours, she’ll have an acoustic section where she can switch songs out show by show and bring guests on. But like Anna said, doing a different setlist every night is near impossible because of all the videos, lighting and dancing her tours have, especially for stadium shows that need a spectacle at pretty much all the time to keep people in the nosebleeds engaged.
And I can't fault the audience because I'm the same way haha, if I'm seeing Lorde I need to hear Royals you know
Fucking manchester only playing the i can feel a hot one outro into Cope really bums me out. Also, still bitter about them playing like 2 bars of top notch a bit ago followed by Andy saying 'just kidding' lol.
I just generally wish artists delved a little deeper with their setlists. I get balancing the new stuff with the “hits,” but at least rotate some back catalog stuff into the mix.
The Weezer medley during the White Album tour was legitimately one of the worst and most annoying things I’d ever seen live. Just play 2-3 songs in full rather than a 7-8 song medley of some of your best songs. Felt backhanded.
yea it would definitely piss me off in that context. I think I’d view it somewhat different for Taylor in that the disparity between the quality of best and worst songs on her setlist is going to be…significantly less wide haha.
Trust me, I get it. Especially with a catalog like Taylor's. I think what makes me the most sad about this is the way folklore and evermore are just not going to get touring cycles. I hope the prediction that she'll only play like 5 songs (combined) from those two is wrong but unfortunately it's a very fair piece of speculation.
Another reason I like the "mini set" approach for this tour is that I think it gives a better chance of those albums getting some shine. Would love a 10-song folklore/evermore section in the middle of the show before moving on to the Midnights stuff.
Is she gonna touch on everything, like is that what “Eras Tour” is supposed to mean? Or will she only do songs where she owns a version that’s out?
Good question. On the one hand I enjoy a lot of stuff from the albums she hasn't re-released yet. On the other hand it would up the odds we get more from the albums she didn't tour on.
I know a lot of bands will have small groupings of songs that they rearrange and swap in and out. Something like that could possibly work for her. So for the sake of ease of example, you have four songs in A, four in B, four in C, etc. Transitions and such are worked out within those groups so everything still flows. Night one you do A, G, C, J and then night two B, J, H, A so on and so forth. Not sure she’d actually do it but it’s one way to streamline a rotating setlist
That's what I was going to suggest. But with the production level of these tours, it's so hard to do that. Springsteen is special in that regard, not even other large rock acts do it as much as he does.
Tbh the typical pop show she puts on is my leave fave part of it all. Go full Springsteen sis! Disclaimer I knew nothing about the Springsteen shows before this thread so I dont know what I'm talking about
You can do it with pop music, you just need to put in a LOT of work and commit to a flexible production not tied to specific songs/acts. I think pop acts just don’t see the benefit with this, the general crowd into pop music isn’t necessarily traveling from show to show and hitting multiple dates on a run (not like a person going to multiple Phish, NIN, Pearl Jam, etc shows). She could easily do a high production value tour and get a batch of 50-60 songs for the tour, selecting 20-24 each night. I wouldn’t assume she won’t do something like this…Taylor will never top Gaga, Beyoncé when it comes to live spectacle but she def can top them when it comes to her catalogue and delivering unique shows. She should save the old big singles for her Vegas years, go deeper into the old records right now.
a high production tour at her level with 50-60 songs would be insanely expensive and just isn't going to happen. best chance is a middle "acoustic" section that is free form every night, thats not to code and has minimal programming, but can almost guarantee you the setlist will not change from show to show