Click here to view a slideshow of photos from the concert.
Sayre Berman No tears on Taylor Swift's guitar Sunday at BankAtlantic Center
Taylor Swift
With Kellie Pickler and Gloriana
BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Simultaneously embodying adolescent pathos and empowerment, Taylor Swift swung her golden ringlets into South Florida's BankAtlantic Center Sunday evening. While many folks around the country watched their office Oscars pool dreams slip through their fingers (and LOL-ed re: Judd Nelson, apparently), this audience had its eye on the sort of hurt locker where a teen stows a diary of their deepest emotions.
Review continues after the jump.
"I am so happy you chose to spend tonight with us," she told the
assembled crowd, north of 19,000 teenage girls and moms looking young
enough to be their sisters who wouldn't have raised a plucked eyebrow
had they seen Jeff Bridges win Best Actor, regardless. One of the
loudest moments of collective shrieking, squealing and screaming in a
night filled with little else came during "Today Was a Fairytale,"
Swift's latest single. It didn't hurt that the song is from the
otherwise-maligned -- only 18 percent fresh at RottenTomatoes.com -- Valentine's Day. It got deafening as footage of the film, in which the pop-country star appears and
briefly sucks face with Twilight heartthrob Taylor "Team Jacob"
Lautner, appeared 50 feet high behind her.
Elle's
current cover girl showed her appreciation for film on Saturday, her
day off -- also the day IGN.com's message board traffic went through
the roof with reports that she visited Walt Disney World and acted mostly normal. "After
a day of roller coasters and joy, watching Lifetime on the bus. This
movie called No Reservations. Abigail Breslin is seriously great," she tweeted. (39 percent, if you're wondering.)
Oscars night elitism aside, what can be said for Sunday's Taylor Swift concert
is that every attendee walked away feeling like they knew her a little
better, that dreams are a little more likely to come true, and that
there's no point in worrying about what other people think. Of course,
a performer who can synthesize that much Vitamin D into a three-minute
pop song about a pale-colored horse, needn't worry about what other
people think anyhow -- because they all love her. On no fewer than
five occasions, Swift's expertly choreographed show stood completely
still while she basked agape in the adulation, occasionally mouthing
"oh my God," and her spunky backing band showed no malice during
minutes-long, mid-song interludes as she slowly descended through the
crowd giving hugs after making a surprise appearance up in Section 115
mid-set.
As will become familiar to the enthusiasts who follow accounts of all 39 dates on Swift's North American Fearless tour,
every show will boast a sea of rainbow glow sticks, neon tag board signs,
and "You Belong With Me"-inspired "nerd" glasses. In the realm of hyper-fandom, a teenage
boy wearing pink fairy wings and three young fellows who painted their chests
to read "T-A-YLOR" hopefully remain unique to South Florida.
Among the American Greetings-sponsored texts flashing on the big screens after Kellie Pickler's opening set (Swift has her own line of cards with the company): "We wrote all over our car about
how excited we are to see you."
Cowboy hats were the exception rather than the rule in this suburbanite crowd. The musical
atmosphere onstage was similar, with pop decidedly winning out over
country in terms of song arrangements, stage decorations and back-up
dancers. Even without the technicality of a Britney or Cristina
performance, Swift kept the energy high. After opening the show
prancing around in a band uniform for "You Belong With Me" and tearing
it off to reveal a sparkly silver dress, she never spent more than a
few seconds in one place or more than a few minutes in the same gown.
Verily, all 39 shows will feature defiant head-banging, hip-shaking and
the requisite hair-flipping that Swift can rightfully claim as her own.
Unlike
so many revamped and retooled contemporaries, Taylor Swift songs are
pure
Taylor Swift. From "Teardrops On My Guitar" to "15" to a
Victorian-themed "Love Story" (complete with "Canon in D" intro), she
didn't need to pretend that she was singing about anything other than her own fairy tale
existence. With
her full-ear monitors working for her and the entire hockey stadium
singing
along, Swift was far steadier as a vocalist than what many of her TV
performances have led people to believe.
No overt mentions of Kanye West or Joe Jonas on Sunday, but the ever-changing
backdrop screens said as much as was needed with the phrases "they
shouldn't do bad things," and "you got what you deserved" flashing
across them. Meanwhile, the most amusing part of a
segue clip hosted by Today's Kathie Lee Gifford foil Hoda Kotb came via Tim
McGraw, who joked about being "plucked from obscurity" by being
featured in the song bearing his name. Swift's only undoing, in terms of track selection, was an
overly country-inspired snatch of Justin Timberlake's "What Goes
Around.../...Comes Around" in the middle of "You're Not Sorry." That,
and some extended beating on an oil drum sculpture, made for the only
unsavory moments of the night.
Taylor Swift stayed fresh a good 95 percent of the time Sunday
night, and earned the right to high-step and shimmy across the stage in
a black dress to the very end. Closing song "Should've Said No" was
punctuated with a waterfall from the ceiling that somehow spelled out
"NO" in the droplets as they fell. Swift eventually immersed herself in
the falling stream, and washed off her completed night's worth of work.
Can just a smile serve as the ultimate acceptance speech?
Critic's Notebook
Better Than: Watching the NHL's Florida Panthers play at BankAtlantic Center.
Personal Bias: It took a hike to find a men's room because most of
the BankAtlantic Center's bathrooms were altered to accommodate the predominantly
female crowd. Uncool.
Random Detail: Pretty sure the castle backdrop for "Love Story" was influenced by Germany's Neuschwanstein.
By the Way: Sunday was final night of a three-show run through Florida. Her next date is in
Austin on March 10, which does not quite overlap with SXSW. She is taking
the 13th to the 17th off, though, so maybe there will be some Surfer
Blood in her future.
