Taylor Swift brought bombast, flare, heart, and so much more to Seattle’s CenturyLink Field on the fourth stop of her latest tour, supporting her sixth studio album, reputation. From the second Swift’s silhouette appeared on stage enveloped in a sea of smoke, the crowd was on their feet, screaming as loud as humanly possible. “Baby let the games begin” blared repeatedly from the speakers, teeing up Swift to ask the audience, “Are you ready for it?”. This was, unsurprisingly, met with thunderous screaming and applause, followed by the crunchy synth into of reputation single “…Ready For It” pounding through the stadium. It quickly became clear that Swift telling the audience that the games were about to begin was no joke, as from the second she stepped out onto the stage, she exuded nothing if not confidence and badassery. To put it simply, she came to play.
Each the over 60,000 attendees were given a wristband upon entry, which depending on the song and their seat location, would flicker a myriad of luminous colors, perfectly in sync with the music and crowd around them. Everyone from the front row to the top of the stadium could look around, and see pulsing, colored light erupting from every crevice of the stadium, in a display that can only be described as magical. If this weren’t enough flare for one night, Swift also had an assortment of other tricks up her sleeve, such as roaring blazes of fire, explosive pyrotechnics, and several gargantuan inflatable snakes, which towered over Swift and her dancers.
The set included tracks from all six of Swift’s studio albums, many of which were in mash-up form, such as the mash-up of “Long Live” from Speak Now and “New Years Day” from reputation, and the mash-up of “Bad Blood” from 1989 and “Should’ve Said No” from her self-titled debut. She also changed arrangements and added twists to certain songs, such as performing “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” acoustic, and singing “Shake It Off” alongside opener Charli XCX. All in all, the stunning show constantly kept the audience guessing, as Swift seamlessly shifted between the the badass queen of snakes, and the goofy country princess the world fell in love with over a decade ago, proving why she is without a doubt one of the biggest stars on the planet.
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Charli XCX
Photos By: Blake Charles | Exclusively for @Music, Why Not! | All Rights Reserved |
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