Concert Review: Taylor Swift at NRG Stadium

Renowned singer-songwriter Taylor Swift took to the stage at NRG Stadium on April 21, 2023, for her first Houston, Texas night of The Eras Tour.

Written by Arundhati Ghosh

Photos by Lauren Stephens

Members of the crowd — dressed in shimmering fringes, sequined dresses, and sparkling blazers — seemed just as bejeweled as the beloved singer they were buzzing to see. Cowboy hats and ruffled sleeves abounded, paired with stamped leather boots and bedazzled cheekbones and eyelids. The frenetic energy was palpable, gaining minor traction through the openers and expanding tenfold as Taylor Swift took the stage, only growing and growing from there.

OPENING ACTS

Gracie Abrams, taking the stage at 6:25 p.m., started off the string of singers with a short-but-sweet four-song set. She opened with “Where do we go now?,” setting a mellow tone as her airy, yet echoing vocals were overpowered by the band’s supporting instrumentals. Her long, pleated white skirt swished as she paced back and forth, voice haunting as she crooned the chorus, “Where do we go now? / Where do we go now?” Her vocals got huskier as she moved to her song “21,” and the big screen shifted from high resolution color to grayscale.

As she finished her second song, she took to the microphone to speak the first words of the night: “[I am] honored to welcome you to The Eras Tour… Taylor Swift is the best at this.” She went on to say “Taylor, I love you,” before gesturing to the crowd and amending her statement, emphasizing that “We love you.” She eventually shifted to “Block me out” and finished her set with “I know it won’t work,” ending with clearer vocals than her first efforts.

After a short break between artists, the lights dimmed once again at 6:55 p.m. as a crayon drawing of beabadoobee danced across the big screens. She came on stage playing guitar, mirroring Abrams’ black-and-white dressing scheme in a calf-length black dress covered in white polka dots. beabadoobee — real name being Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus — started her set with “10:36,” though her instrumentals drowned her voice out for much of the song. The music itself was set to a sharper style, escalating the tone from Abrams’ previous heart wrenching-albeit-easygoing performance.

Laus switched to a blue guitar, and her vocals became clearer as she later played “Care,” and she remained stable in her repetitive lyrics in the chorus. “She Plays Bass” followed, once again having the instruments overtake the songstress’ voice, and then switched her electric guitar (which had previously been exchanged to a green one) for an acoustic one before playing “See You Soon.”  Her voice became lilting, smooth, and light as she carried the song through, and the rest of her set was relatively uneventful as she performed “Glue Song,” among others. beabadoobee closed her performance out with heavy percussion and thrumming electric riffs, ending around 7:25 p.m. after finishing with “Cologne.”

It would be a little under a half hour wait until the main act took the stage. 

ERA: LOVER

Emerging from the depths of the stage’s underbelly while standing atop a rising pedestal, multi-hyphenate Taylor Swift found herself in the midst of thousands of adoring fans screaming her name as she launched into the set’s first song, “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince.” Her first era’s dress choices directly contrasted the black and white of her two openers: The blue and pink jewels laid in her first look of the night — a custom Versace bodysuit — shimmered in the light as she welcomed the crowd by letting them know “You know I adore you, I'm crazier for you.” Dancers billowed sunrise-esque fans in the background as she stayed on top of the platform for “Cruel Summer,” vocals crisp throughout the broodingly upbeat tune.

She pulled on a matching blazer to give a more business professional look for the third song of the night, “The Man,” which tells the world of how Swift faces more obstacles in her career as a woman than she would as a man. This was made obvious even by her set, as the songstress physically ‘worked her way to the top’ of an office set and declared that “if I was a man / Then I'd be the man.” Her next song, the conscientious “You Need To Calm Down,” featured deliberate vocals, a colorful house, and a playful attitude as Swift led her dancers in a smooth, fun dance.

Background singers joined her, seated, as she pulled out a pink guitar for title track “Lover.” Shifting from the more power-pop songs to the softer, grittier tracks off of Lover allowed for fans to settle into the realization that their idol was finally in front of them, and it allowed Swift a break before she cleanly and beautifully belted out the chorus of the song. She shed the instrument for the final, softest track, “The Archer,” opting instead to lithely move up and down the stage as she sang to acoustic, minimal playing from the band. The tone sufficiently relaxed, Swift set the audience up for excitement as the second era came upon them.

ERA: FEARLESS

Characteristic of a truly golden album, the stage backgrounds were covered with scenes of gold-toned curtains pulled across windows as the second era began. The main act was quick to skip out onto the stage through the curtains and past her dancers’ and backup singers’ silhouettes, her shimmery gold dress and matching mid-calf boots catching light as she practically ran up to the mic standing at center stage. Complete with a bedazzled silver acoustic guitar, the vocalist maintained stability even as she spun around the stage during her performance of title track “Fearless.”

She ditched the guitar for “You Belong With Me,” giving herself the agency to act out the pre-chorus with her dancers, miming the difference between high heels and sneakers, cheering and being on the bleachers: “She wears high heels, I wear sneakers / She's Cheer Captain and I'm on the bleachers.” Swift made sure to gesture to the audience when singing the chorus itself: “If you could see that I'm the one who understands you / Been here all along, so why can't you see? / You belong with me.” The star of the performance was the bridge — unsurprising, coming from an artist known for her unmatched bridges: She beautifully belted out the first couple of lines in a slightly lower tone than usual as she rose up higher and higher into the air, courtesy of a rising pedestal in the middle of the stage.

The third and final song of the Fearless era, “Love Story,” saw the songstress walking along the catwalk with her dancers and starting the song off powerfully, though she chose to naturally let her voice peter out slightly as she realized the strength with which audience members were singing along. It was a more laid-back performance than the songs preceding it, as if to specifically set up the mellow tone of the following era.

ERA: EVERMORE

Swift traversed hours and days and months within her evermore set. She stood dead center onstage, the gold accents on her orange dress shimmering in the light as a simulated forest covered the screens behind her. Her voice was almost deadpan, though appropriately so, as she gently pleaded through the first song’s chorus: “We could call it even / You could call me babe for the weekend / 'Tis the damn season, write this down.” The transition into “willow” was noticeably jarring, as a cult of her dancers overtook the stage in dark, velvety cloaks, with Swift donning one of her own as her entourage began working with fire and pumpkins to create a woodsy, yet witchy effect. The singer’s vocals cut through the air as cleanly as possible, even over the crowd’s incessant chanting. The forest scene behind her transitioned from night to day, streaks of light flexing on and around the trees.

“marjorie,” the next song performed within this era, saw the background shift from orange autumnal trees to a wintry, snow-covered setting as Swift simulated walking down a path alone while singing “The autumn chill that wakes me up / You loved the amber skies so much.” The Pennsylvania-born musician paused, giving her singing voice a break as she announced to the crowd, “Oh Houston — here we are,” before mentioning that “a fun fact about [The Eras Tour] is that it is [her] favorite tour.” She then moved to a piano standing at one end of the stage, fingers delicately dancing over the keys and her sung notes ringing out even as her voice went lower when enunciating the title of the song — “champagne problems” — within the lyrics themselves.

Aware of her strengths as a lyricist, Swift looked out to the crowd and paused in her singing as she casually mentioned that “there’s a bridge coming up,” expression morphing into one of simultaneous expectation and grateful anticipation as her fans immediately rallied, cheering, as she continued: “Your Midas touch on the Chevy door / November flush and your flannel cure.” The cameras controlling what came across on the big screens zoomed in on Swift’s face during the ending notes of the song, focusing on her teary eyes as she gave the upper levels a gentle, red-lipped smile.

“Oh, Houston, Texas, thank you so much. I love you for that.” She took pause before leaving her instrument, and then took a moment to introduce her successor, the tour’s newest member on keys, Karina DePiano. DePiano began the opening sequence to “tolerate it,” as four dark walls began closing in on Swift, who, by this point, was setting up a dinner table that rose up to center stage. The center stage door opened, and a dancer took his place at the far end of the long wooden table. Swift crawled onto the table as the lyrics mounted, ultimately standing on the wrecked dinnerware as she sighed out the suddenly-oxymoronic outro line, “I sit and watch you.”

ERA: REPUTATION

Known for brash lyrics, bold instrumentals, and snake iconography, Swift did not disappoint during the era switch to Reputation, taking the stage in an asymmetric black bodysuit covered in black sequins and sparkling red snakes. The first song, “...Ready For It?,” saw her entourage backing her up every step of the way as everyone onstage executed a complicated hip-hop routine alongside Swift’s purposefully breathy, enunciated vocals. The shift to “Delicate” was glaring, with the songstress suddenly standing alone at center stage and smiling brightly as she sang to the crowd, “you must like me for me.” Her movements were sassy and fluid, cementing Reputation as still the most in-your-face album she’s put out.

Stairs rose up as the heavy percussion of “Don’t Blame Me” started, with Swift climbing up step-by-step as the fiery instrumentals built. The percussion gained depth everytime the lyrics led up to a long sustained note, and every lyric sounded hearty, as if she’d pulled the words from the depth of her chest. She ended the song by shouting “Don’t blame me…”

And immediately transitioned into the next tune, continuing her sentence with “... for what you made me do.” Blinding lights immediately swept across the floor and out into the middle and upper levels as an rock-operatic version of the backing track for “Look What You Made Me Do” took over the speakers. The songstress’ voice was staccato in a purposeful manner as she strutted around and on top of several dancers — encased in boxes akin to those dolls are in when first sold — dressed as her other eras, making wide, sweeping movements with her arms. Her voice, timbre low, shook with meaning as she enunciated “starring in yo’ bad dreams.”

ERA: SPEAK NOW

The least represented era in the setlist, the only song Swift chose to consistently perform from Speak Now was “Enchanted.” As she went backstage and changed from her Reputation bodysuit to a sparkly pink ball gown, muted and gritty sonarlike lyrics from the song she would perform in mere seconds rang through the stadium. Fans waited for Swift to re-emerge with bated breath as “please don’t be in love with someone else” played on loop in the background. Once she came back onstage, her voice took on a youthful, at-times pleading and at-times brimming with child-like honesty, angle, and her dancers performed a graceful, twirling number around her.

ERA: RED

One of her dancers, dressed brightly in a sequined red top, preceded the singer on the stage, sitting alone on top of an equipment box. She raised her hands, hyping the crowd up before opening the top of the box, closing it, opening it, and closing it again as clips from Red played as if from a music box. Once Swift came out after the crowd’s cheering and chanting rose after each opening of the box, she immediately seemed to be having the time of her life. Dressed in a black bowler hat, black shorts, and an oversized white t-shirt with the words A LOT GOING ON AT THE MOMENT — “A LOT” written in red, and the rest of the words in black — block-lettered against the fabric, the atmosphere easily transformed into that of a slumber party with one’s best friends as her dancers came out with her, surrounding her as she began singing “22.”

“I don’t know about you / But I’m feeling 22,” Swift practically laughed, gesturing a “33” with her fingers and pointing at herself to show how much she’s grown since the release of the song. The sound quality was fantastic, supplementing a reasonable laid-back performance. The transition to “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was not seamless, with heavy percussion leading into Swift revealing an outfit change into a red and blank romper. Her dancers danced bodily, holding each other up and moving each other through the air and within the mass of their bodies as the main act traversed the stage. Unlike her singing, Swift’s spoken word break within the song was difficult to hear, drowned out by the instruments in the background.

The next song, “I Knew You Were Trouble,” began with a punchy rhythmic intro that resonated within crowd members’ chests. The songstress, working hard to earn the accolade of dancer, threw her body into several dramatic poses throughout the performance, but her voice remained clear and stable throughout. She made sure to emphasize singing the end of the bridge, ringing through the air when she let the crowd know “that he never loved me.”

Her final song from Red, placing an emphasis on Taylor’s Version, was the 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” for which the singer came out in a long, sparkling red robe over her romper and boasted a black acoustic guitar. She introduced the song as important to her “as a songwriter, as a musician, as a 21- and 22-year-old person” before letting her audience know that she felt “20 to 23 are the most precarious, beautiful, yet fragile ages a person can be when growing up.” The performance was enveloping, bringing her fans into the warm colors and cold atmosphere of the short film/music video’s aesthetic. Very few artists can pull off a song that runs into the double digits, length-wise, but the crowd remained captivated as Swift practically hissed out how her scarf “reminds you of innocence.”

The long track ended with Taylor Swift lending her raw vocals to some of the final lines, foregoing the acoustic guitar to give all of herself as confetti rained down on the stadium floor, mirroring the singer’s emotional delivery of “I still remember the first fall of snow / And how it glistened as it fell.”

ERA: FOLKLORE

folklore saw Swift in a flowy white dress, reclining on top of a wooded, ivy-covered house born of her wildest dreams and softest fantasies. She surveyed her audience as she began singing “the 1,” pointing up in various segments of the stadium whenever she intoned “But it would've been fun / If you would've been the one.” The multi-hyphenate maintained her head voice throughout, right up until she took the opportunity to speak between songs, mentioning that folklore was an escape from “focused biographical confessional” songs before moving onto “betty,” in which she gave her clearest, most crystalline vocal performance of the night. Her back-up singers buoyed her voice rather than overwhelming it.

With a sunny, summery backing track, “the last great american dynasty” felt all-encompassing despite the performance itself staying largely central to the A-frame folklore house. Dancers dressed in period pieces waltzed around the cabin as Swift gave them the words to act along to, her voice slightly tinny as she told the story of Rebekah and Bill. The introductory verses of “august” were powerful, as was the ending, though the meat of the song saw more breathiness than expected. Next on the setlist, “illicit affairs” got lost in the transition between “august” and “my tears ricochet,” the latter powerfully depicting a funeral as the songstress used the roof of her mouth to get clean high notes. Percussion built as she introduced the next song, mentioning that “when you are young … you know nothing” before fully relaxing to sing from the head as she started on “cardigan.”

The relatively calm, though no less powerful, folklore era transitioned into 1989 with a whisper that transitioned into a bang, helped along by the cheers of a crowd that knew exactly what was coming next once they heard the iconic, bouncy instrumentals for…

ERA: 1989

“Style” was fun. A raw song, known for depicting situationships incredibly accurately, Swift managed to maintain the gritty and genuine parts of the tale even while having the time of her life dancing across stage in her sequined, orange fringe. The pleading quality of the recorded song felt lost, however — the singer seemed to have a much better experience performing onstage for the crowd than she would’ve had recording it alone in a booth. The switch from “Style” to “Blank Space” was exceedingly natural, and the crowd chanted the lyrics ahead of Swift herself. She took her place atop a stage that carried projected versions of her past self, giving a flashy and flirtatious performance as she wielded neon blue golf clubs: She did not shy away from grinning about her “long list of ex-lovers,” smile brightening when she mentioned that “they’ll tell you I’m insane.”

The stage darkened momentarily before revealing her silhouette, immediately moving to loud, bumpy percussion and Swift began scream-singing, “I stay out too late / Got nothing in my brain / That's what people say.” She stepped down off of the highest block onstage to dance at the same elevation as her entourage, with fluid moves during “Shake It Off”’s breakdown, all before ending the experience by sustaining a high note. “Wildest Dreams” saw the singer falter ever-so-slightly, nearly imperceptibly losing a note before recovering easily and professionally. She let her voice become overpowered with the crowd’s chanting before treating the audience to chorus-adjacent body rolls.

The transition to “Bad Blood” was abrupt as the singer started quietly on the first couple of lines, her lone voice floating through the air without instrumentals to back them. This did not last long — quicker than lightning, Swift started the third verse by yelling “hey!” Percussion joined her as she moved beyond the introductory verses: “Did you have to do this? / I was thinking that you could be trusted / Did you have to ruin / What was shining? Now it's all rusted.” Her and members of her posse blew kisses at crowd members in between lines, all before ending the song — and the era — with the most incredible vocal run of the night yet.

SURPRISE SONGS

Clad in a ruffled, bright yellow dress with glittery pink eyeshadow sweeping across her eyelids, the songstress reappeared on stage after a dress change, idly strumming her acoustic guitar as she said, “I don’t know why, I just really wanted to play this [song] tonight. I haven’t played it in a really long time. I kind of based it off of a kind of … twisted Alice in Wonderland…” The crowd, immediately recognizing that the first surprise song would be 1989’s “Wonderland,” cut her off with a surge of cheers. The low drone of the fans singing along was no match for Swift’s voice, sounding as fresh and youthful as it did when the song first came out in 2014. She stood at the very front of the stage as she strummed along to her own vocals, her once-typical country twang slipping in when she cleanly rendered that she was “never worse but never better.” She was at the center of a campfire, and the twinkling lights of audience members’ special light-up wristbands and phone flashlights were the fireflies surrounding her warmth.

After putting up her guitar, the acoustic angel moved to a piano resting at the other end of the stage to introduce “You’re Not Sorry,” mentioning that she fell in love with it again while re-recording Fearless. The piano was rich and resounding as fans hushed for her first few notes on the keys, melody perfectly molded for bare bones instrumentals. Her voice rang through the air and her runs resounded even as she played through the piece, and its gentle ending directly contrasted with the chaos that was Swift swan-diving into ‘water’ in order to change before moving into the final era.

ERA: MIDNIGHTS

Dancers shuffled around on stage, carrying moon rocks that appeared to be as big as their bodies. Swift, literally rising above, descended into the clouds in a vision straight out of a fairytale — or a slumber party, considering the oversized, glittering sleep shirt she wore for the first performance. For “Lavender Haze,” she donned a pale lavender shag coat as she strutted the stage in black mid-calf boots, the exhaustion of a three-hour performance implying a toll as her falsetto felt weaker than prior instances. She emphasized the final word of “The only kind of girl they see / Is a one-night or a wife,” body-rolling, interestingly enough, at “wife” over doing so at “one-night.” The transition into “Anti-Hero” was smooth, and her lower register shone during the chorus, even as she paused to send kisses and mouth “I love you”’s to the crowd.

“Midnight Rain” saw the accoladed performer walk up stairs only to fall into a pile of umbrellas held by her dancers, emerging from the cluster in a blue and silver fringe dress, complete with a blue garter. Pauses in her singing for the synth to shine through allowed her to regain her breath, and she came back powerfully in “Vigilante Shit,” emphasizing every beat with her body during her chair dance. The backing track for the powerful Scooter Braun exposé thumped under the feet of every concert-goer, ensuring that it was well-felt by the masses.

The first exclamation of “nice” in the song “Bejeweled” was underwhelming, even as it was meant to emphasize its successor. However, Swift regained both strength and volume in the next “nice!” Once again, as with many, many songs on the setlist, the songstress appeared to genuinely be having fun as she stood in a group with her dancers, cheering on solo performances and hyping up her friends and colleagues. This emphasis on the group made for a startling shift into “Mastermind,” which found the singer-songwriter standing, alone, with her hair pushed behind her shoulders so as to appear as innocent as possible. She rounded the stage, pointing up at each and every section, as she sang, “What if I told you I'm a mastermind? / And now you're mine / It was all by design / 'Cause I'm a mastermind.”

She pulled her hair to the front, switching out of her bright-eyed and bushy-tailed expression as she intoned, “This is the first time I've felt the need to confess.” Swift’s final performative act of manipulation came at the end of the penultimate song: she took a massive bow, as if to trick her audience into believing that the show was over after all. This was wholly untrue, however — for the actual finale song, she pulled on a sparkling blazer, side-stepping and jump-skipping her way into completing an all-encompassing setlist. Her backing track harmonized with her as she finally took a break from belting lyrics out to gesture to her band, her dancers, and her back-up singers before yelling out “We love you, Houston, Texas!” She closed the concert with this show of love as red and orange fireworks took to the sky. Fans cried, chanted, and cheered — it was evident that Houston, Texas, loved Taylor back.