Review: Taylor Swift kicks off 'Reputation' tour with epic, revelatory concert

Two hours earlier, the star had set the tone for Tuesday’s show by blasting a recording of Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation through the PA, Jett defiantly snarling, “I don’t give a damn ’bout my reputation.”

You could say it was a running theme, informing both the lyrics of her latest album and the narrative arc of the concert itself as she shared the experiences that led her to the “Reputation” tour and the lessons she learned from those experiences.

A Swift performance is often as much about the connection she’s established with her fans as it is about the sing-alongs her biggest hits inspire. And Tuesday’s show was no exception.

On the one hand, she treated fans to a state-of-the-art production, played out on three stages, the largest of which was 110 feet tall.

There was plenty of pyro, confetti and slick choreography with a team of 16 dancers, who bungee-jumped on industrial scaffolding on Bad Blood.

There was a tilted stage to underscore the line “Don’t like your tilted stage” in her latest album’s first and most successful hit, Look What You Made Me Do.

There were giant snakes and floating platforms to carry the star from the main stage to one of the satellite stages and back again.

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Taylor Swift performs during the launch of her Reputation Tour at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. May 8, 2018. (Photo: Michael Chow/The Republic)

There were countless costume changes and truly breathtaking visuals projected on that huge curved wall of screens.

And after seguing from We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together into This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, she ended the concert on top of a fountain.

But for all the pageantry and spectacle she brought to the proceedings, there were many moments in the course of Swift’s performance that felt like she was playing to the back rows of the stadium by simply sharing with her fans.

And there was much to share.

She talked about taking a break from the “pretty predictable” schedule she’d been on since she was 16 after touring in support of 1989 to figure out “who I would be and what my life would be life if I didn’t have a spotlight on me all the time.”

She talked about how many times she’s had to deal with people in the industry telling her what her fans expected

“It would be things like you can’t work with that person,” she said. “Or you can’t make a pop album because your fans are country fans and they would never understand. And I would say to them, ‘I’m pretty sure I know them better than you do. I’m pretty sure they want to connect to the feeling in a song.'”

Late in the set, she sat at the piano and said she figured people might be wondering why there were so many snakes involved in the production.

“Well, the reason is,” she said, “a couple of years ago, someone called me a snake on social media and it caught on. And then a lot of people were calling me a lot of things on social media. And I went through some really low times for a while because of it.”

It got so bad, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to continue doing music for a living. So the snakes, she explained, were meant to send a message.

“If someone uses name-calling to bully you on social media,” she said. “And even if a lot of people jump on board with it? That doesn’t have to defeat you. It can strengthen you instead.”

In her case, it taught her a valuable lesson about reputations.

“And I think the lesson,” she said, “is that you shouldn’t care so much if you feel misunderstood by a lot of people who don’t know you, as long as you feel understood by the people who do know you, the people who see you as a human being.”

Then she thanked the fans for “taking the time to get to know me and appreciate me, to see me as a human being.”

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Taylor Swift performs during the launch of her Reputation Tour at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. May 8, 2018. (Photo: Michael Chow/The Republic)

And with that, she launched into a vulnerable solo piano rendition of Long Live, one of the few songs in her set that predated her two most recent albums.

The star made her way through no fewer than 14 of the 15 songs on Reputation, opening with …Ready For It?, I Did Something Bad and Gorgeous before reaching back to 1989 for Style and then dusting off two of her earliest pop hits, Love Story and You Belong With Me.

After featuring four more songs from Reputation, she flew to the back of the venue, where she was joined on a spirited romp through Shake It Off by tourmates Camila Cabello and Charli XCX.

She stripped it down for unplugged takes on Dancing With Our Hands Tied and All Too Well before making her way to the other satellite stage for the night’s third 1989 selection, Blank Space.

That was followed two songs later by one last hit from that album, a crowd-pleasing Bad Blood.

The rest of the set was a well-paced mix of old and new, including her first song to top the Billboard Hot 100, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

That six-times-platinum triumph hit the top in 2012 and paved the way for Swift’s transition from the country star most likely to crossover to perhaps the biggest pop star of her generation.

Six years later, she’s selling out stadiums in support of an album that managed to hold its own at Tuesday’s show surrounded by a number of her most enduring calling cards.

And she really did seem to feel truly alive.

Setlist

…Ready For It?

I Did Something Bad

Gorgeous

Style

Love Story

You Belong With Me

Look What You Made Me Do

End Game

King Of My Heart

Delicate

Shake It Off

Dancing With Our Hands Tied

All Too Well

Blank Space

Dress

Bad Blood

Should’ve Said No

Don’t Blame Me

Long Live

New Year’s Day

Getaway Car

Call It What You Want

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

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