Taylor Swift Concert!

For Christmas, my husband gave me tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert at the Staples Center. That day finally came!! We went on Tuesday night and It. Was. Amazing. (And I sang along to every song, of course. My voice was pretty much gone by the end of the night. So was my hearing.) :)

(And just so you know, I will be using lots of "so" and "amazing" and "fantastic" and all other words describing T.S. and the concert. Don't be annoyed.) ;)

This is my first concert. Yes, EVER. That is probably weird. I love music and love all types of music. Chris has been to lots of concerts (mainly when he was in college) and has seen many bands play. Mostly ska and rock. I love country music but Chris is kinda 'meh' about it. So I've never forced the issue. :)

But...TAYLOR SWIFT. If you've read my blog posts, you know how much I adore T.S. and her ability to put so much emotion into her lyrics. In three minutes, you have a whole story. That is a great skill. I listen to T.S. to get in the mood to write. So, the tickets were the best present ever for me.

I made a shirt to wear.

One of the sleeves of the T-shirt I made

Stage before curtain

We had floor seats, back in section 6. (Right by the lighting and sound guys in the middle of the floor.) The stage was kinda far but they have these three enormous screens in the front so that you can see the action on the stage. *swoon* The Stage. So beautiful. Elegant bridges and staircases and a gazebo. The dancers fit the songs perfectly. The band rocked. And Taylor! She was SO sweet and honest and just...real. That's what I appreciate about her the most. In front of 13,500 fans, she was still the same person she is on her blog, on her vlog, on interviews. You could tell that she was stunned when she came out at first and saw the huge crowd.

I'll try to give the order of the songs she played and insert pics I took (the lighting was really poor for getting good pics).
She started with "Sparks Fly" and she had a gorgeous gold dress that glittered and fit the song perfectly. And there were FIREWORKS. Yes, it was super cool.

Next, she wore the dress she wore in the "Mean" video and played her banjo in "Our Song" (one of my fav. songs!) and then "Mean."

Costume change - "Mine" - So great. And then "The Story of Us."

Long dress and white piano. Lights lowered to make a bridge for the violinists. White confetti for snow...Yep, "Back to December." *sigh* SO good.  First two verses and then she broke into OneRepublic's "Apologize." I KNOW. It fit. And bits of "You're Not Sorry." Then back to "Back to December" for the last verse.

Bridge with violinists above and behind her

Bridge above and lights beneath - going back up

"Better than Revenge"  (Not my fav. song)

And a wedding set for "Speak Now." This was really well done. The bride/dancer was perfect for the role. The groom was sweating it out and then Taylor and her friends/dancers were so cute dancing together in a 1960s girl group sorta way. (And her purple dress was beautiful.)

AND THEN!
She made her way through the crowd and came to the back of the arena. RIGHT BY OUR SEATS. She had a little platform set up with a glowing tree. She sat down and had her ukulele that she bought in Hawaii. She talked about the awesome musicians that are native to CA. She sang, "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys. Of course I sang along...with about 50 other people. The teens in the audience had no idea what the song was! :-/  The little platform she was on started to rotate! And she was looking right at me! (Just kidding. But she was turned in my direction. Fangirl moment.) Switch to a guitar, she then sang "Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani (of No Doubt fame) and totally nailed the fast part. Switch to a different ukulele and she sang "Fearless" and then segued into Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" and it was FANTASTIC. Goose bumps. (She was about 20 feet away this whole time.) "Last Kiss" which is one of favorite songs to play when I need to get into a sad writing mood.

Random girl making the heart sign :)

SO close!!

Back up to the stage to sing "You Belong With Me." Cool dancers.
"Dear John" while she sat on the stairs. SO sad and good.
Ballet dancer interlude during costume change.

She starts to walk to the back of the stage, stops, turns, and sings, "Ohhh woahhhh." (Cue screams from all the preteen girls in the audience.) (And the 16 y.o. girl next to me!) "Oh, hey. Do you mind if I invite my friend Justin to come out and sing?" I've never heard such loud screaming in my life. Seriously. I had to plug my ears or I would have gone deaf. The girl next to me - holding her face and shaking, "MAH!!!! MAH!!! Oh. My. Goodness! Is this really happening?! Is this real life?!?!" I tried very hard not to laugh at her freak-out.

Justin Bieber came out with his back up dancers. And he sang "Baby." This was a very weird moment for me. I'm not a fan of J.B. but I also don't hate him. Neutral is a good term. I was impressed by his dancing skills and he sang well with Taylor. The best part was seeing and hearing the audience freak out over him showing up. :)

Costume change - beautiful dress. "Enchanted" was the next song. Dancing was lovely.

And then "Haunted" came on. Wow. This was AMAZING. There were three huge bells lowered from the ceiling, creepy trees projected on the back screen, and aerialists (like from Cirque du Soleil) came OUT OF THE BELLS. They bounced and spun in mid air, looking like they would drop to the stage but didn't. The performance was one of the best of the night.

"Long Live" was a song that T.S. wrote while on the Fearless tour last year. She performed it and it gave me goose bumps. Again, yes.

Curtains close. No, wait! Don't let that be the end!!

Oh good. There's an encore. Taylor is wearing a sparkly ball gown and sitting on a bench, her band surrounding her. "Fifteen." This almost made me cry when all the girls around me starting singing, "And we both cried!" at the top of their lungs.

AND THEN THE BEST PART OF THE NIGHT. A little balcony thing lowered from the ceiling onto the stage. Taylor got onto it, her puffy ball gown looking fantastically sparkly. And the whole balcony LIFTED INTO THE AIR. And floated around the arena. I did start crying at this point. How does she think of these things?? She sang "Love Story" while sailing above our heads.

The pics I have don't really do the whole experience justice. For my first concert, this was truly phenomenal.

"This night is sparkling/don't you let it go/I'm wonderstruck/blushing on the way home" - "Enchanted"

"Today was a fairy tale" - "Today was a Fairy Tale"

And it's all because of this guy...

I love you!!

P.S. The opening acts were Josh Kelly and NeedToBreathe. Both were good. :)