I sat through the school day, tapping my foot with anticipation for what that night would bring: flashing lights, sparkling dresses and red lips. I was about to spend my night with Taylor Swift and 12,999 other people.
Taylor performed Monday, Sept. 21 and Tuesday, Sept. 22 at the Sprint Center for her 1989 tour, completely selling out both nights, of course. After her last tour in Kansas City, it wasn’t an option to not go. Luckily, my family managed to score a few tickets, and I got to bring a friend to share the amazing moment.
I arrived at the Sprint Center at 7:10 p.m and quickly found suite 23B, allowing myself 30 minutes to make sure I wouldn’t miss the opening act, folk/pop artist Vance Joy. To add to the amazingness of the night, I shared the suite with the woman responsible for bringing Taylor to Kansas City. I made sure I told her how grateful I was to be there.
When the arena went dark, the crowd hushed for a split second and then there was an uproar of excited screams. We were ready for Taylor.
But when she started belting out her first few lyrics, something happened that really surprised me. The bracelet each audience member, including myself, had received, lit up. Which meant the entire Sprint Center lit up. Throughout the concert, the bracelets flashed in different colors to the beat of each song. At first, I was startled, but then I saw the entire crowd begin to glow in blue, red, green and white. I was part of the set.
Besides the light from the crowd, street lamps and busy street noises filled the stage: it had to be her song, “Welcome to New York.” In each show of the tour, Taylor dedicates a different song to each crowd, which she performs completely solo. For this concert, Taylor decided to perform “You Belong With Me” because she wanted to play a song that everyone knew.
To keep the surprises rolling, Taylor chooses a different surprise guest for each show. Monday night, Taylor’s guest was country singer Dierks Bentley. I’d never heard of the song they performed, “Every Mile a Memory,” and was pretty letdown. I was expecting someone cooler, like Tech 9 or Selena Gomez.
But the concert and its pizazz went on. Out of her nine different costumes, all of the outfits consisted of sparkles and/or light up dresses. I wanted to raid her closet, especially for her sparkly silver short dress.
Most of the concert’s songs were from 1989, Taylor’s newest album, but Taylor made sure to include five of her old songs that the crowd knew by heart: “You Belong Like Me,” “Love Story,” “Enchanted,” “We Are Never Getting Back Together” and “I Knew You Were Trouble”. Everyone in my suite, including me, was singing and dancing to all of these classics. Taylor sang very well overall, and it even seemed like, at some parts, she almost came to tears because she was so happy.
My absolute favorite part of the concert was Taylor’s badass version of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” Decked out in her black leather jumpsuit, she played her electric guitar and sang with a kind of edginess that isn’t usually found in her music. It showed a different side of Taylor that the crowd seemed to love.
In between songs, Taylor familiarized herself with the crowd by telling us her experiences with love and heartbreak. She told us if we were heartbroken to not let that bad experience to keep us from opening up to people in the future. While some of her speeches were cliche, most of the crowd found it inspiring.
By the time she said goodnight, my eardrums were pounding and my eyes were drooping. But I definitely wasn’t sick of Taylor. During the car ride home, we blasted 1989 the whole drive back, partying like it was 1989. The concert will be hard to forget, especially since I still find the song “Wildest Dreams” playing in my head weeks later.