What I Took Away From The Last Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Show in Vancouver
Before we get into the holiday cheer and the nitty gritty about my meltdowns, I want to take you back to an evening I had a couple of weeks ago. At the last minute my sister and I decided to spend a not insignificant amount of money on behind the stage Taylor Swift tickets to the very last night of her Eras Tour in Vancouver. We live about an hour away from BC Place Stadium where Taylor was playing her final show, so a couple of car rides and a Skytrain trip later we arrived at the venue two minutes before Taylor took the stage (that is how last minute it all was!). Now I would say going into that show, that I was a fan of Taylor’s, I liked her music, and I knew rather a lot of it, thanks to my son Oliver who adores Taylor and knows each and every album pretty much inside and out. However when I left that concert 3 1/2 hours later, I was a card carrying Swiftie and it has taken me awhile to process that remarkable evening. I will tell you more about what Taylor taught me below…
A Merry Christmas Eve To You!
I hope you are having an enjoyable holiday season so far! This can be hard to do when there is so much hustle and bustle going on. I’m not going to lie, I have had two minor melt downs in the last couple of weeks due to me trying to do too much, in the space of too little time. Sometimes it is difficult to avoid all the activities packed in together into a short period, especially when you are not the one scheduling them, and often they are events that we have to, and / or want to, attend. This is particularly true if you have younger children or grand children, as you want to see their pageants and recitals, as well as do your holiday baking, hosting, wrapping of presents and making merry with friends. I read that for Christmas 2024 we actually have five less days between Black Friday and December 25th and I think quite a few people are feeling this time pinch.
About My Meltdowns
So my two mini meltdowns, one with my youngest teenage son, and one with my husband, came about due to rushing to take my son to a piano practice and he and I having ‘words’, and with the other, it had to do with my husband coming home grumpy from a long work day / commute, and with him having low blood sugar from not eating (hangry). On both occasions I was feeling overwhelmed and tired. In the case of my son, after our exchange of ‘words’ I got quiet and my son went to his piano practice, and later, when we had both calmed down, I apologized to him for being negative, and he apologized to me for having a rude tone. With my husband, I had a bit of fit, gave him ‘a piece of my mind’ around him being grumpy with me, and then stormed out of the kitchen. I went upstairs, climbed into bed and slept for 13 hours straight. (I told you I was tired! lol).
Apologies All Round
After getting some much needed rest, I apologized to my husband, who also apologized to me for being curt when he came home and thus, fences were mended. We then all realized that our December calendar had been really packed, at least for the first two weeks of it. My husband had been doing lots of extra work and worked 12 days straight, including some out of town work, which in turn, then put more household / parenting stuff on my shoulders and then I added in the Taylor Swift concert which was a late night and left me exhausted and over stimulated (despite the fact I wore earplugs!).
My son and I had a conversation as well where he explained to me that he too was feeling overwhelmed, and was under the gun, with his mid-term exams, assignments due, a Christmas piano recital and late night hockey games that had him getting home at 12AM on a school night. In the moment when I was getting frustrated with him, I didn’t really think about his experience, I was just seeing things through my lens. Same goes with the melt down I had with my husband.
Alls Well That Ends Well
In the end though, it was good to get rested, calm, talk it all out and realize what we needed to do going forward, which was to be more mindful, kind and patient with each other, especially when life was busy and we were running on limited sleep, and for all of us to try and make an effort to see things from each other’s perspective.
Sparkles? Check. Friendship Bracelets? Check.
Back to the Taylor Swift concert. My son snapped this pic of me as I was leaving to meet my sister for the show. I pulled out the only thing I had with sparkles, this black shirt that was a size too small lol and borrowed a few friendship bracelets from my son Oliver to trade. Then we were off!
Seeing Taylor
When my sister and I (above pic) arrived at the show, right off the bat we realized we had made the right decision in forking out mucho dinero for these last minute tickets. Unless you have been to a Taylor Swift Eras show it is hard to describe the energy! I have never experienced 60,000 people, singing and dancing in unison.
It was absolute JOY!
For many, myself included, the last few months have been rough given the state of affairs here in North America, and around the world, and a lot of people have been feeling despondent. But in the stadium on this night, that was all forgotten as we cheered, grooved and were fully captivated for three plus hours. You can see from the below pic where we were behind the stage (you can see the back of Taylor in the lower right side of the pic vs the Taylor displayed on the jumbo tron). I think our seats were pretty good actually, as we were fairly close to the little Taylor on stage, and we could see her simultaneously on the big screen, plus all the goings on on that side of stage, which included her excellent band.
Why Taylor is Such a Force
Beyond being an amazing musician and singer, playing the guitar and piano, and writing / co-writing her own lyrics, Taylor is an exceptional performer. Years ago I worked in the music industry and saw a lot of singers and bands, and over forty years I have seen many concerts, but I have never seen a show like this. In a social media post I described it as part awesome rock concert, part Olympics and part smash Broadway show. Taylor, her dancers and her visuals were dazzling!
But her show went beyond that.
Yes it cheered up many of us who were down about the state of politics and the world. Yes it was inclusive and BC Place was rocked to the foundations when she sang ‘ You Need to Calm Down’ and the raucous crowd was bathed in rainbow lights. But it went even deeper than that for me and I think for many others as well.
How Taylor Swift Took It To The Next Level
When she sang ‘The Man’ and the ‘F*%k the patriarchy keychain’ lyrics from the song ‘All Too Well’, the mostly female crowd went wild, screaming for this woman who was showcasing MAXIMUM FEMININE POWER.
‘What do you mean?’ You might ask. What I mean is…
- Power in her craft as a performer – Every show of hers on this tour was an absolute sell out and she was the top streamer on Spotify for 2024.
- Her sexual power – conveyed through her lyrics and dancing, she shows us how women ‘contain multitudes’ (*to steal from Walt Whitman) and cannot be divided into ‘good’ girls or ‘bad’ women based on our sexual choices, or whether we follow traditional roles or not, whether we get married or not, whether we choose to have kids or not.
- Her financial power – The Eras Tour was the first tour to make over A BILLION in revenue.
- Her societal power – everyone wants to see her show including the children of the future King of England, as well as celebrities, athletes, politicians and rock stars.
- AND she wields power to do good in the world – Taylor leaves large donations to Food Banks in cities her tour plays in, she is generous with all her staff and gives bonuses of $100,000 plus to those who drive her trucks and do security, and a mere three days after her two – year, record shattering Eras tour ended in Vancouver, she wasn’t sunning herself on a beach somewhere, which we certainly could understand if she wanted to do so, no, she was visiting sick kids at a hospital in Kansas City. This was followed up by sending Christmas presents to these same children.
This is a woman, the likes of whom we have never seen before, and in my view she is such a fabulous role model for young girls and women because she shows us ALL the POSSIBILITIES.
Despite being a bit wrung out by the hectic holiday season, I became completely energized and empowered by watching Taylor be Taylor. I came away from that concert feeling as if I could do anything I set my mind to!
I am now a full on, card carrying Swiftie, and even today, weeks later I am still running on the energy of that night, and that is why Taylor Swift is so phenomenal, because she brings the JOY, and I can see why fans try to get to as many of her shows as possible.
And for that, for providing so many people around the world with love, light and hope, I say;
Thank – you Taylor Swift!
But Now There is No Eras Tour…
I know the Eras Tour is over, but I hope you already have, or can find, something that lights you up in life like that concert did for me. I watch the videos I took of the concert when I need an uplift, but also, given the time of year, I might listen to Christmas carols that make me feel merry, or enjoy a cup of tea with one of the gingerbread cookies I made the other week, or chat with a friend, or hit the gym, or make a donation to a charity I feel strongly about, or maybe watch a funny movie with my husband or do a holiday craft with one of my sons.
These things all lift me up in small ways.
If you are having trouble finding the ‘merry’ this holiday season, or if you are feeling discouraged about the state of the world, or are blue because you are alone, or maybe you are in a relationship but still feel lonely, then remember, the antidote is to find the JOY.
Whatever brings the light to you, is what you want to do more of, so go do it, and do it as many times as you need to, to get that positive shot in the arm, to feel energized and empowered, both in your life and in your relationship, because one joyful person then passes that joy on to others, who then passes it on to someone else, and we certainly could use as much joy as possible in our world these days right!?
Well my friend that is it from me.
From my family to yours, Seasons Greetings and best wishes for the New Year!
Above pic was going to be our Christmas card pic for 2024 – it was taken in Florence, Italy last December but due to the Canada Post strike, no cards were sent.
