Taylor Swift Soars, Literally

How hard is it to sell out the Dome at America’s Center? Well, I can tell you Taylor Swift had no issues filling the stadium with loyal fans of all ages. What’s even more impressive is that she was able to do this on a Tuesday night.

The Reputation Tour came to St. Louis on Tuesday, and the Dome was opened up for the rare occasion since being closed since the departure of the St. Louis Rams. The tour did not only have the multi-Grammy award winner, but also Charli XCX and Camila Cabello both performed songs that have made summer hit lists before.

Swift highlighted the fact that this show was a girl-empowering show from the openers to the background dancers. Encouraging her mostly female fan base and telling them that women-empowerment is an amazing and powerful thing.

Swift kicked off her show with a video highlighting her past and her reputation. She appeared on stage singing “… Ready for It?” The crowd erupted into cheers as she engaged with them, getting everyone stoked with fireworks and smoke machines.

After performing a couple songs, she took a second to address the audience and said, “St. Louis, you have no idea how many Thanksgivings I have spent here.”Swift having a lot of family that lives in St. Louiswhich only made the crowd louder. She soon moved her talk into a smooth transition of the song “Gorgeous.”

Swift focused this tour more on her latest album “Reputation” but she also made sure to throw in some cult classics. She sang a melody of “Style,” “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me.” The mashup making the long-time fans especially ecstatic. She also made sure to recognize that she could see all of her fans in the stadium because every fan was given a light-up bracelet that synced to the music. Swift said this helped her recognize every person from the front of the room to the very last row of the stadium.

She went into her next act with a video interlude to her first single off of her last album “Look What You Just Made Me Do.” It had a surprise video snippet of Tiffany Haddish saying the famous line “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, because she’s dead!” Swift made sure this was an experience by  having a giant inflatable snake rise behind her as she performed.

Along with the giant inflatable snake, two more appeared at her back b-stages. Swift made sure to make an entrance to her first b-stage by floating by on a lit boat, soaring over her fans while singing her most recent single “Delicate.” But not before giving some of her notorious advice, she spoke about how we all want to be validated and not portrayed as something we aren’t. We all want something real, we all want some form of love, whether that is through friendship, family or a significant other.

At her first b-stage in the back left corner was a whirlwind for her fans. She brought out Charli XCX and Cabello and they performed “Shake it Off” together. Swift soon took it down a notch though and went down an acoustic route with just her and a guitar. Doing a stripped-down rendition of “Dancing with Our Hands Tied” and then brought back her song “Hey Stephen” from her second album “Fearless.”

Soon, she walked to her next stage and touched the hands of her dedicated fans. As soon as she reached the b-stage she went into her infamous song, “Blank Space.”

She did another song before she was whisked off to the main stage, a mashup of “Bad Blood” and “Should’ve Said No.”

Swift again took the time to slow things down and we found her seated at the piano. She addressed the crowd again and explains how crazy it is that people have been listening to her music for so long. She adds that she’s amazed that people still listen, and for them her music wasn’t just a phase. She takes these words and displays them by going into her song “Long Live” from her album “Fearless” and flowing it into her latest ballad “New Years Day.”

As the show neared its end, Swift pulled out all the stops. Confetti, fireworks and a collaboration of her songs “We are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “This is Why we Can’t Have Nice Things.”

This was more than just a show. It was an experience. Swift made you feel like you were just one of her friends and that you were there to dance and have a great time with her. Her stages, sets, outfit changes and more made this an overwhelming event that I guarantee did not disappoint.